Creating Keepsakes Convention

I'm going to the CKC in Kansas City this weekend! I'm not taking any classes. I'm actually volunteering on Friday morning, then I'll have two free passes to the vendor fair! My mom is also volunteering, so after we're done with our volunteer jobs, we'll probably spend the rest of the afternoon at the vendor fair. :)

Oh, and here are the two items that I made for the Charity auction.

such a horrible mommy

So, yesterday I was sick. For real sick. So I stayed home from work. Evidently I'm not yet mentally back from being sick.

This morning. I actually let Red wear whatever she wanted to school. Khaki capri pants, an orange Halloween shirt and silver ballet flats. It actually didn't look so bad all together. It's a little chilly, but according to Weather Underground, it'll be about the same as yesterday so she probably doesn't need a sweater/sweatshirt/jacket. However, I completely forget to ask her about lunch until we're walking out the door so she has to eat school lunch and I'm not even sure what they're having. And as we are driving a few sprinkles fall on my car. So maybe she should have had a jacket, in case the sprinkling continues. I drop her off, return home to get my stuff. The sprinkling has stopped so I'm not worried about her lack of a jacket. I drive to work and get most of the way here and the streets are all wet from rain that apparently skipped over us. Now it is pouring and there is lightning and thunder. The good part of this means that she won't have recess outside. So she'll really only get wet after school...right?

In other news, I had my first serious issue with AT&T U-Verse. My DVR evidently forgot that it was supposed to record stuff last night. Specifically NCIS. It could've been worse, my other two Tuesday night shows weren't on last night due to a baseball game? or something like that. But NCIS was on. And my DVR somehow forgot that it was supposed to record it. All of my series are still set up, but nothing was set to record tonight either. Luckily I fixed it and rescheduled them and now they appear to plan to record. Luckily I caught it today or I would be missing Private Practice, Pushing Daisies and CIS: New York.

Mondays

Blah.

Well, I survived the weekend. I did not get nearly as much accomplished as I would have liked and I was quite grumpy by Sunday afternoon. But we all lived.

All of the laundry is done and folded and only Red's clothing still needs to be put away.
Most of the kitchen is re-organized.
Justin cleaned the kitchen and did all the dishes. He's fabulous.
He also cleaned the toilets. I still need to do the mirrors and countertops and showers, but the toilets (which I hate dealing with) are clean.
My sb room is mostly clean. My table is still piled with stuff, but I can see the carpet.
I finished both things for Ashby's auction. I still need to mail them and I forgot to bring them with me today. And if anyone has mailed a scrapbook-in-a-box, how'd you do it?
And I watched Grey's Anatomy. :)
And I even managed to work for about 3-4 hours.

so much to do

There is SOOO much that I was planning to get done this weekend. Of course it is 11:45pm and I'm writing a blog instead of accomplishing anything. But I finally started cleaning my scrapbook room. It has been a disaster area since Sept 17. I'm fairly certain it was clean-ish prior to the scrapbook-in-a-box class. Then I carted at least half my stuff to the church and I never cleaned up again. I've just been dragging anything that I want down to the livingroom and working down there.

Part of the problem with my scrapbooking room is the fact that it is right next to the diningroom and the door is always shut. Which means if we spontaneously invite anyone to come inside, the cleaning of the diningroom and counter mostly consists of me picking up anything that doesn't belong in that room and putting it in my sb room. Of course, then the people leave and my door is shut and I don't really want to drag whatever crap I put in here out again because the diningroom is FINALLY clean! Then the whole process happens again about 2 weeks later. So my sb room eventually ends up full of random crap that doesn't really belong in my sb room. But to clean my sb room involves figuring out what all the crap is and where it really should live. And sometimes finding interesting stuff that we lost 4 weeks ago when my parents were coming over for dinner.

Currently, we have a new solution for this problem...not inviting people over! So all the random crap can just stay in the diningroom!

Anyways, back to cleaning. I've decided I can't watch Grey's Anatomy until this room is clean. And all my scrapbook stuff is out of the livingroom. And it would also be good if the bathrooms were clean and the kitchen was clean and I had finished reorganizing the cabinets and the laundry was done and folded and put away and the little scrapbook-in-a-box that I'm making for Ashby was done and the auction things were mailed (because the auction is in 2 weeks). But I'm fairly certain if all that had to be done before I could watch Grey's Anatomy, I wouldn't get to watch this week's show until next weekend.

However...yay for the DVR!

Thersday

Most of Red's spelling words this week were abbreviations. Months. Days of the week. Street and Avenue. Mrs., Mr. and Dr. One of the challenge "words" was "Thurs." She thought the abbreviation for Thursday was "Ther." Of course that makes a bit of sense because she though Thursday was spelled "Thersday". Which is just hard for me to type.

Anyways.

Today, before lunch. I went for a 3 mile walk with some of the guys I work with. Normally the walk is less than 2 miles. Barely even 1.5 miles. Today we went farther...much farther. It was good. But a little bit longer than I really wanted to go.

Red and I should start walking in the evening. We wouldn't go 3 miles. But we could probably walk maybe a 1.5 miles.

sometimes the pictures say it all...

Friday Friday FriDAY

I wish I could say I've been busy doing something fun...but I'd be lying.

Yesterday, I had to be downtown for work. However, since I was near the Sprint Center, I was able to run by there when I got done working and get a Garth Brooks wristband. Which means tomorrow (Saturday) morning I can go to the Sprint Center and stand in line and try to get tickets.

And then today I had to drive to Missouri. Monday I'm going downtown again. It's like I'm never in my office these days. And sometime next week, I might possibly be going back to Missouri.

Also, it's Friday. It's 3pm. I'm sooo ready to go home.

Well, the red is fading (although this is supposedly permanent hair dye) and my roots are growing out so I need to decide what I am going to do with my hair now.

My choices are:

re-dye it red
dye it blondish-brown (my normal color)

I already have the red dye, but I need to return it anyways because I didn't notice until just recently (when I started pondering what to do about my hair) that it has been opened before. At least the box has been, I'm not sure about the actual tubes of dye, but I would rather have a different box. Since I need to return it anyways, it probably wouldn't be all the difficult to get a different color instead of red. But I don't think I want to do anything too wild and crazy.

Somedays...I wonder why I even get out of bed and go to work. Today is definitely one of those days. I don't know if it is the baggy sweatshirt...the lack of a vehicle in the parking lot...the rain...that fact that my boss is out of the office...or what. But I'm just hardly even awake this afternoon. And soon, I'm leaving to go home. Because Justin has to come pick me up and then we have to go get his car for Mazda.

Then we have cheerleading. And I have to cook dinner. And I have about 8 things set to record tonight. Of course 2 of those are for Carey, 1 is because http://mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/ is on World News on ABC. AND House, NCIS, Bones, Cavemen and Carpoolers are all on tonight! I'm not sure about Cavemen or Carpoolers. But I like having at least a few 30 minute comedies to watch.

And whoever decided to buy a big box of Twizzlers for the break room is not funny because I keep eating all of them!

New PHONE!

I have a pretty new phone...see!

I don't know why I am all about pink recently. First...I wanted a pink coffee cup. Then I wanted a Pink/Purple MP3 player. Now a pink phone - and pink was truly one of the requirement of my new phone. And if I even thought I could get away with it...I'd just this pink toaster. Or maybe this. And I saw these at the store on Saturday and I really almost bought them. Then I remembered that I *have* mixing bowls and I only use them for (1) a popcorn bowl, (2) making cookies, (3) making a cake. And all of those things don't happen more than once per month. And 2 and 3 don't usually even happen that often.

I finished up one of my two projects for Ashby's auction. I still need to make the little girl scrapbook box. I made a little boy star album.

Yippee!

It's FRIDAY!

Of the things that I was supposed to do last night...I did...none of them...

I did go to dinner at my mom's though. And I watched CSI. I did not watch Grey's. I started it around 10:30, then Justin came up and saw that I was watching it and he wanted to watch it with me, so I went back to the beginning (I was only 5 minutes in) and paused it and waited for him to come watch with me. And waited. And waited. And waited. And then when he finally did show up, I told him that it was too late for me to start watching an hour long tv show...because by then it was getting close to 11:00 and I have to get to bed by midnight or I'm exhausted the next day.

Blah

I have so much stuff that I really need to do tonight. And I have to go to dinner at my mom's.

1. Get cards ready to be mailed to my Sunday School class tomorrow.
2. Pay bills
3. Work on mini-album for VisibleGrace's auction
4. and some other stuff that I don't remember right now....

My cat, Percy, did not die yesterday. We were worried about him though. He had his shots yesterday morning and in the afternoon, he was all twitchy and sneezing and sweating. But Justin took him back to the vet and they gave him an anti-vaccine shot and some medicine and now he is doing much better.

Things I don't do nearly often enough...

Go to skate parties. When I first decided to go, I wasn't really all that excited about it. But Red wanted to and there wasn't really anything else that I needed to do last night.

But I actually had a good time. I didn't skate very much. Mostly because someone had to watch our food/beverages/game tickets. We took the neighbor boy with us too since his parents had stuff going on last night and couldn't take him to the party.

FINALLY

It is finally time for a post...with pictures!

First, this is a crazy "float" that was in the parade a few weeks ago. It is for a Crematorium & Funeral Home... Just what every parade needs...

Second up, the Upwards Cheerleaders in the parade! Woo-Whoo! Go Team! (or something like that...)

This is Justin & I at his family reunion. It's one of the better pictures that has been taken of me recently and Justin is making some kind of crazy face. And you know who took this picture...Red!

The cute little min album that I made. I {heart} it! :)

And evidently when there are pictures. I feel less of a need to type. Also, I'm supposed to take breakfast to my Sunday School class in the morning and I need to go and decide what to take.

Oh yeah, and Michelle tagged me. So here we go:

6 Random/Interesting Facts:

1. I whine and complain about doing production and working in the warehouse, but I actually don't mind it because it makes the day go so much faster.

2. I love peas but I never make them because Red & Justin won't eat them. So whenever my mom makes them for lunch I eats lots of them.

3. I wish I could be a stay-at-home mom.

4. Sometimes I do things specifically so that I can scrapbook the event.

5. Sometimes I'm jealous of people who can be in debt and not pay their bills and just not care. I have major anxiety when money gets short and I'm having to figure out how to pay bills. But really, I figure in the long run, I'm probably better off caring about it.

6. I hate talking to people. Particularly ones that I don't know.

I think pretty much anyone that reads my blog has already been tagged, but if you haven't been tagged, you are now. :)

i'm a bad blogger

Instead of writing a real post with pictures and everything like I've been promising. I spent almost all of Saturday laying on my couch watching TV. Or sitting on the floor in front of my couch scrapbooking while I watched TV. I got very little accomplished. The laundry still needs to be done.

Then I took yesterday off work. Woo-Whoo! Because last night, I taught a class at my church on how to make a scrapbook in a box. We had fun. I hate talking to a group of people. Particularly when I'm asking them to make sure they pay. But yeah, it was fun. There were 9 people there. A couple of them finished decorating their boxes. Only one person brought pictures, but that's completely OK. I brought all of my fun little tools and papers and scrapbook stuff. And they got to use whatever they wanted. Mostly I was trying to get rid of some of my stash so that I can buy MORE stuff.

Anyways, after I got home last night, I started making a star album. Not too difficult, although it does require 9 sheets of 12"x12" cardstock! Since there are 12 pages in the album, I decided to make one page for each month. I picked out my pictures, but I still need to resize them and order them. I think I'll keep this one for me!

it's almost a real post...

Last night, I intended to write a real post with interesting information and pictures for the parade and carnival this past weekend. Instead I cooked dinner, took Red to Target, played Addition Bingo, taught Red how to work her sewing machine (that was on clearance at Big Lots for $7.00!), and then Justin came home and Red went to bed and then I spent the rest of the evening (until 12:15am) fixing Justin's friend's computer.

See Justin's Friend...we'll call him "C"...bought a new computer on Saturday. After Justin put all the parts in his computer, C took his computer home to finish setting it up and hooking up all his MIDI stuff because he also bought a MIDI keyboard. But he couldn't get it figured out. In fact, he couldn't even get the computer on the internet. So Justin drove out there yesterday and got C and his computer and brought them both to our house. And then, C left and his computer was still at our house because Justin didn't get it to work either. So, after Red went to bed, Justin and I sat down with the computer and I made it mostly work. The difficulty is that C wants to hook this E-MU thingy up to it and then hook the MIDI keyboard up to the USB port on the computer and then use the Barracuda board he's got inside the computer to record music. Sounds like fun? not. The problem is, I have never ever done anything with hooking musical instruments to computers. And I'm not positive he has all the right software to do what he wants to do. And I would think he'd want to hook the keyboard to the E-MU. But he doesn't he wants to hook it to the computer using USB which should work but I can't get it to work because I know exactly nothing about this crap. And 11:30pm is not the time for me to be reading the technical information about it while listening to Justin play his guitar through the E-MU thingy. So, if anyone knows, let me know because I have a feeling the computer will still be waiting for me when I get home today.

And now my boss is here and asked me to research something that I barely understand. Yay for days when I feel like an idiot...

A real post...coming soon!

Until then:
"Idiocracy" is one of those movies that is so bad, you can't turn it off because you keep thinking it will get better...

On Saturday, we went to a parade. Red was marching in it with her Cheerleading group so I was required to watch until Red's float went by. At which point I was required to get up and follow it to where it stopped and then claim my child. Sounds like fun....right?

I found the Camera Cord!

It was attached to the family computer. I vaguely recall that I might have done that. Although it is possible that Justin did that.

I also really wanted to get rid of the bags under my eyes, but I'm way too exhausted to spend 20-30 minutes photoshopping a picture for my blog. So yeah.

Also, things that aren't fun:
1) getting to a meeting late
2) thinking your meeting is in one place when it is really in another
3) trying to drive from place A to place B and having your car not start
4) walking to your meeting that is really not very far away with an 8 yr old
5) getting done and walking back to your car and it *still* doesn't start
6) waiting on the sidewalk for your brother to show up to jump start your car
7) having brother show up without jumper cables because he can't find them
8) riding with 3 people in front seat of truck because you now must go to Target and buy cables
9) getting back to your car after going to Target and having the 8 yr old tell you she needs to go pee

The Camera Cord is MIA

So, I still owe you the picture of me with red hair. I attempted to get it off the camera last night, but I can't seem to find the camera cord. Which is odd since I just used it not that terribly long ago...in fact, I think it was Friday...so not even a week and the cord is missing.

I've been so freaking busy at work this week. I spent Tuesday, Wednesday and this morning using a 4 pound Rivet Gun to set 100s of Rivets each day. Let me just tell you how much my wrist, hand, shoulder, pretty much my entire arm, hurts from using that damn gun. And that doesn't even include how much the rest of me hurts due to the bending and the lifting and the standing on concrete all day long. However, now we are awaiting the delivered of more parts, which means no more production until we get the parts.

I have to start thinking about which shows I'm really going to watch this season. Normally, I watch all three CSIs and Law & Orders, as well as, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, Cold Case, House, and Las Vegas. At least, that is what I recorded. Then if I happen to be sitting in front of the TV I'll watch basically whatever happens to be on. This year though we have the kiddo. Which means now we have stuff going on most evenings. And I'm not positive that Grey's Anatomy or CSI are really appropriate for an 8 year old. Oh and I really want to watch at least the premier of The Women's Murder Club because I love the James Patterson series they are based on. I have a feeling I'm not going to watch most of my shows until after Red is asleep.

As if there isn't already enough going on, I think after Cheerleading is over, we'll get her into Swim Lessons #3. I'd like to get her in the first session that starts in 2 weeks, but since it meets on the same night as cheerleading (but at a different time) there would just be too much going on. Particularly since Justin has class that night.

And I have also got to start scrapping again...

Red Headed Me

I now have red hair. Not Strawberry Blond...but RED...

Justin doesn't really care what my hair looks like. Red dislikes it. I like it, but every so often I catch sight of me in the mirror and it's like "WHAT?" But yeah. I took some pictures. I still need to upload them. So maybe tonight you'll get a glimpse of the Red Headed Me.

Yes, I used COLD water.

So, on Tuesday night, I washed all of Anaya's new clothing that she got for her birthday. Including, the red shirt with white sleeves seen in the picture. Anaya had Cheerleading so I started the washer before practice, went to practice, made dinner, ate dinner, went to the laundry room to move washer stuff to the dryer.

Remember the white sleeves...attached to the red shirt... The white sleeves now had light red splotches all over them. As did another shirt (from the same store) that was a teal tank top attached to a white shirt. And so did another white shirt from a completely different store. Well, we already had to go to "Justice, just for girls!" to return her new Hannah Montana sweatshirt because it was a tad too small so we get in the car with the two wet shirts (because why should I dry them just to return them?) and the sweatshirt and head up to the store. They don't have EITHER of the shirts in her size anymore. So we spend much more time than I wanted to spend finding something else to get her. We did eventually settle on another long shirt thingy with leggings, a tank top and a new larger Hannah Montana sweatshirt. We checkout, I pay $7 because the new stuff was slightly more than the old stuff. We leave the store. We get home, I unload the bag and show Justin what we got and guess what?!?! The new larger Hannah Montana sweatshirt....it still has it's security tag on it so now I have to go BACK to "Justice, just for girls" to get it removed and convince them I really did not steal it. First I need to find my receipt...

Oh, and the whole time we were in the store this is what I heard...
"Mom, look at this high school musical [piece of crap]!"
"Can we get this FOOT LONG PEN! It has Hannah Montana on it!"
"Oh looky! They have cds! And dvds! And [crap]!"
"Candy? Can we get CANDY? They have it right here!"
"I want this dress! Or maybe this one? No, definitely that one! Wait, I hadn't seen *this one* yet!"

And that's right...I also had a headache this whole time. Fabulous.

Recently, I've been reading SAHM blogs. Most of these moms have between 3 and 7 kiddos. They all have so much interesting, non-whiny stuff to say.

Last night, Anaya & I went outside to play in the front yard. One of my neighbor's came outside with his two kiddos (4 yrs & 20 mos). Anaya *loves* babies. She would rather have an under 3 yr old to play with instead of another 7 or 8 yr old any day! We had to have a talk this morning about not picking up other people's kids. I know she has a 21 month old sister at her mom's house that she is not only allowed, but sometimes encouraged to pick up. That is fine. But you *must* have the parent's permission with other people's kids.

*Updated to Add Linkies*
http://www.threekidcircus.com/threekidcircus/
http://mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/
http://wouldashoulda.com/
http://www.notesfromthetrenches.com/
http://thisfullhouse.com/

oh me oh my

Yesterday was the party. Oh man. It sure was something.

Damn These People

Damn.

So, I decided not to go to Anaya's cupcake thingy at her school today because I had work that *had* to be done. E left early today, seriously before 2pm. M2 is about to leave for his nephew's b-day party. I should've gone. I should've just said that I had to go. Mostly everyone would've understood.

Weeee

Today is Anaya's birthday! She's 8! How crazy is that?!?! It doesn't feel like...3 yrs. :)

I was planning to go to the school today to take Cupcakes to the kiddo's class. But then work happened. And we have lots of stuff that has to be done by 5pm TODAY. And I found out about it yesterday...at about 4:30pm. So yeah. Jenni doesn't get to leave work today. :(

We're having a BBQ at work for lunch today. I brought Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream and the coolest Ice Cream Scoop EVER.

Tomorrow will suck. I have to buy fruit, make a b-day cake because I never got around to ordering one, decorate for Anaya's party, prepare little smokies in a crock-pot and wrap presents. Because I *completely* forgot about that little detail. And make favor bags for the other kiddos. Go back to Party America and hope like hell they still have the stuff I got for Anaya & Levi since Valery is now coming to the party.

So far we have...15 people coming...I think.

Tonight...

Why? Why does *EVERYTHING* have to happen on the same night?

Anaya has Cheerleading Practice
I have to tutor
Justin has painting class
Anaya & I have to put icing on the cupcakes

All of this must happen between 5:30pm and 9:00pm.

Last night I went to Anaya's school for Meet The Teacher Night. Got some good information about her teacher's rules. Learned more about what is expected of them. I feel much better about Anaya's ability to do well in her class. Last year, she had a lot of problems with talking to her classmates. This year, the teacher is really big on group work and pair work. So almost every activity involves working with another student! Which means talking is encouraged. Obviously there are times when talking shouldn't happen, but not like it was last year where talking was almost *never* encouraged.

email

I really have a love-hate relationship with email.

I love it for it's convenience. And the fact it means I don't have to actually speak to anyone. I love being able to think about a response. I love being able to type a message and then save it and come back later and realize that isn't exactly what I wanted to say.

However, there is a hate here too. I hate the slow response time some people have with email. Or the fact that some people evidently *never* respond at all! Oh those people drive me UP the wall. Particularly people that are in charge of activities for kids and put their email address out there as a way to get in touch with them to sign up for activities such as cheerleading and girl scouts. If you're going to put your email address out there, you probably ought to check it...right? right?!?!

weekend update

I had a pretty good weekend. The kiddo was at her mom's and while I do miss her while she is gone, it's nice to have uninterrupted time to clean, take care of stuff, hang out with friends, etc... without having a 7 yr old to entertain. And it was blissfully quiet without the Disney channel on. :)

On Saturday I cleaned my scrapbook room. Started the laundry. And then went to Carey's housewarming party. I wasn't planning to stay there nearly as long as I did, but oh well, it was fun! And eventually I'll post a picture or two. The only thing I didn't get a picture of, and I meant to, is the front of her house. After I got home, Justin & I hung a shelf in my scrapbook room.

Sunday, was rather...interesting, I guess. I slept in and missed first service because I was exhausted. Then I went to my Sunday School class, then over to my mom's for lunch. Came home, continued messing with the laundry. Cleaned my bathroom & the main one. Then some people that Justin knows came over to look at a painting he offered to do for them. While they were there Anaya's mom called so I left to meet them and bring the kiddo home. And Matt came over to change our wiring around so the family computer now has internet access and the livingroom is rearranged and tv is on a different wall. It feels much more open. :)

Now I'm at work and I'm starving and I'm tired and work is not going well today.

First Day Of School

I did end up taking yesterday off from work. I took Anaya to school in the morning and walked her to her classroom. Then I left and ran errands and mowed the front yard and basically just hung around the house until school was over. She only had a half day, so she got a little before noon. Then we had a snack and a visit to the dentist. Anaya now has a timer to tell her when she has brushed long enough. Then we had lunch and then we made sugar cookies with pink strawberry icing. Yummy.

She had a pretty good first day. The neighbor boy sits across from her. I don't know how long that will last since they both have a history of getting in trouble for talking too much. But we'll see. There's a girl in her class that she knows from church. And the little boy that lives behind us that told Anaya she was ugly and fat is also in her class. We're all 'thrilled' about that one. She likes her teacher so far. Getting details out of her about what she did or didn't like about school is like questioning a spy. All one word answers. I always thought kids just talked and talked and talked. But for us, it's like, "So, how was your first day?"..."Fine"..."Did you know anyone in your class from church?"..."Yeah"..."Who?"..."[names]"..."What did you do?"... and so the conversation goes.

Last night we ended up going over to our neighbor's house and chilling in their pool for a little while. Anaya is now invited to come over any day after 5pm. So I imagine we'll be spending some more time running over there and playing in their pool.

life and such

School starts tomorrow! I'm contemplating taking the day off from work. I know I probably should give more than 1 day notice, but I hadn't really thought about it until I was reading Ali's blog about Simon going off to school. Then I realized that I kind of want to be there after school so that I can hear how the first day went, what she thought of her teacher and the other students, and all that kind of stuff. I mean, Justin'll be home either way and she could tell me about school when I get home from work while we eat dinner.

Okay, really. I just want to take a day off work. And this is as good a reason as any other.

Last night we talked to Anaya about her birthday party. There was a bit of a fit about us not inviting her mom, but then we started talking about the things we would have at her party and the games we might play and so on and so forth. Then we went to Party America and bought a bunch of Luau theme items. Spent more than I had planned on spending. But that's what happens when one feels guilty about not inviting the child's mom to the party being organized by the step-mom which will include the step-mom's entire family whom has a habit of spoiling the child which makes the real mom sad because she can't spoil the child. I just see much angst if we all had the party together. Maybe another time. We should've just had her party this weekend and done a High School Musical theme and watched HSM2.

101

Well...since no one else posted a comment I guess that means Michelle wins. So I'll get something out to you this week.

I'm gonna attempt to get some scrapping done this week. I made a b-day card last night for someone in my sunday school class. I need to make 2 more b-day cards and a get well soon card.

Then there are a bunch of challenges I want to do...I just need to order pics.
Pencil Lines Sketch #45 - VBS layout.
Scrapjack Meg - dunno what pics to use
OLW "Seek" - dunno what i'm doing with this either
Unpudded - Justin & Anaya "Daddy's Girl" - won't be done before it's due since it is due today...

I need to get invitations and such for Anaya's birthday party. We're doing a Hawaiian theme so I'll probably buy Leis for everyone. And maybe a grass skirt for Anaya. We're just doing a cake & ice cream party (no real food). I'll probably also have a fruit platter. I think it is just going to be my family & Justin's family. Anaya wants to invite the neighbor boy and her mom & step-siblings. But I think for this year we'll just do our family. Mostly to make life easier for me. And it might annoy Anaya and her mom since Anaya already told her mom about the party, but oh well. Such is life. Her mom can have another party over there for her. That's what we normally do.

100

This is my 100th post. Woo-Whoo. And just to see how many people actually read my blog, I'm doing a RAK for my 100th post. Leave a comment and I'll pick one (randomly) tonight (or tomorrow) and send something cool to that person.

Anyways, now that I've figured out how to celebrate my 100th post, now I'll actually write something! I tutored last night, had 4 students show up. They are so good for my ego. They all wish I had my Masters so that I could teach the class instead of the lady that is teaching it. But no Masters = no teaching. So yeah.

Anaya is on her way home from Nana's house. Not to say we haven't missed her, but it's nice to have a break every so often. However, I wouldn't have wanted her to stay up there any longer than she did. I *finally* finished her closet last night. I went to Wal~Mart after tutoring and bought hangers (white, blue, pink & purple ones!) and then hung up all her shirts and put most of her toys back on the shelf I removed them from. :)

So, yeah. No big plans for the weekend. Gonna try to go to Famous Footwear. Anaya needs 2 new pairs of shows for school - tennis shoes & something fun - and Famous has the buy 1 get 1 50% thing going on again.

so sleepy...

I am seriously about to fall asleep on my desk. I am...exhausted. My cough was keeping me up last night, so I went down to the livingroom to sleep on the couch because for some reason I sleep better down there and ended up reading for a while...until 5:45am. Then I woke up at 7:30am when my alarm went off. That's right, not even 2 hours later. Probably by the time I actually got to sleep it was 6:00am. So I got somewhere around 1.5 hours of sleep last night. And now it is 2pm. And I'm exhausted. And in need of some caffeine.

But I was the "The Pact" by Jodi Picoult. Loving it so far. I don't have much left of it. I really wanted to just stay up the rest of the night and finish it. Then I decided almost 2 hrs of sleep was better than 0 hours of sleep.

Anyways, I'm exhausted and can't wait until I can go to sleep tonight. That is the one good thing, I will be so tired that I'll get to sleep even with my cough. :)

Elsie's Challenge - 25 things to do before I turn 26

25 things to do before I turn 26

1. Get involved with my Sunday School class
2. Make a felt stuffed animal
   
3. Make time to see college friends at least once per month
4. Tithe regularly, even if it is only $10
5. Lose 10 lbs. and keep it off this time
6. Increase my 401(k) contribution to 10%
   
7. Start a College Fund for Anaya
8. Regularly contribute to Anaya's college fund
9. Make a scrapbook for Aunt Shelly
10. Make a scrapbook for Noni
11. Make a Jenni-Justin-Anaya album for MIL
    
12. Crochet an Afghan
13. Stop living paycheck-to-paycheck
14. Spend a whole day at work without visiting any non-work websites
15. Paint a canvas for the livingroom wall
16. Switch cell phones to family plan
17. Attend Information Session for KU Master Program
18. Get a layout published
19. Play in the snow (assuming the weather cooperates)
20. Go on a family vacation - just the 3 of us.
21. Make a pie - from scratch
22. Build a flowerbed in the front of the house
23. Dig a hole and set up the water feature from MIL
24. Fix-up laundry room to make it more useful
25. Relearn how to roller blade
    

scrapjack - kc

This is my scrapjack of Kristina Contes. It is from when Anaya's Kindergarten teacher, Miss Cacal, came back to visit. She moved to Hawaii the summer after Anaya was in K, and she came back the next summer and had a Pizza Party at Chuckie Cheese's for all her students. She was a really good teacher.

More Whiny Self-reflection

I know I do *a lot* of whining self-reflection. At least that's what I call it. Others might call it Self-Absorbed Whining. But it's my blog and that's what you're gonna get.

Church on Sunday got me thinking about this. Granted it is probably not what my Sunday School class was going for, but eh, such is life.

I'm 25 years old and have *never* truly felt like I've belonged anywhere. I'm not sure quite why this is. But I just have a really hard time making friends. And seeing as the commonality is me, I'm guessing that I'm the problem. I've been going to the same Sunday School class for over a year. I'm on the leadership team. I go to some of the outside of class activities, just kind of depends on what else is going on. I have never once spoken on the phone to anyone in my class. I have never done anything with anyone outside of class organized activities.

And this problem isn't just at church. I don't actually feel like I belong at work either and I've been here 3 yrs! I've tried to get involved in online communities thinking that maybe having the computer be a buffer for me would help, nope.

Okay, there is one place I feel like I belong...with my family. Although I've known them for 25 years so I'd hope that I belong there.

I want to change something. I want to be able to be part of a group of friends. But I don't know what I need to change for this to happen.

Goals and such

I have lots and lots of stuff that I want to get done between now and Friday. Anaya is up at Justin's parent's house which makes this the perfect week to do all the stuff I've been putting off. Such as: cleaning the bathrooms, mowing, fixing her closet, organizing my scraproom and so much more.

I got her closet about half done last night. I removed two of the shelves that were in there. Now I"m just waiting for Justin to get the hanging bar out of the basement closet and so that we can put it in her closet and then put one of the shelves back up.

Tonight I'm going to a card making class at Archivers. Should be fun. :)

Vitamins

I recently started taking One-A-Day: All Day Activity. Recently meaning 3 days. And as of today...no more. Those things are huge for one and make me gag just trying to take them and then I feel sick to my stomach on and off all morning. Hell no I'm not voluntarily taking a pill that chokes me and then makes me feel sick.

I'm taking off early today to go see the doctor about my cough. Evidently there is a viral cough going around. Meaning that it is contagious. However it is not responding to any antibiotics so you pretty much just have to deal and try not to infect anyone else. Unfortunately, Anaya & I both of this cough which means even if one of us starts to get over it, the other person will probably pass it right back again. Go us and our germs.

La La Thursday

I was supposed to take Anaya to swim lessons this morning. It would've been her last class. But she woke me up at 7:30am saying, "My ear hurts, I can't hear out of it." Well, she could hear out of it, it was just kind of quieter than normal. So we stayed home from swim lessons and she's going to the doctor this afternoon to find out if it is just an ear infection, which she seems prone to, or something else. She's supposed to be going to her mom's today, so we'll see how that works out.

I have to tutor tonight. So far I've had one person confirm that they will be there. That doesn't really mean much since most people don't confirm anyways.

I'm supposed to be going to a crop tomorrow night. I wanted to order some pictures for it, but I haven't had a chance to sit down and order them.

Boo Hiss kind of day

I ended up spending half the night on the couch last night. I went to bed after finishing the apron, but I was coughing pretty bad so I took some cough medicine. Then Justin started some kind of wheezing snore thing that would wake me up about every 5 minutes. So I took some advil, grabbed my pillow and retreated to the livingroom. I even remembered to set the alarm on my cell phone so that I wouldn't be late for work. Well, I was late anyways, but that's a different story.

I'm kind of worried about school starting for Anaya in a few weeks. Since we live close enough to the school, we would have to pay for bus transportation. And her school is on my way to work so it made since for us not to pay for the bus and instead have me drop her off and Justin pick her up. Except for the fact that I've barely been getting up before we'll have to leave for school.

I'm so crafty!

Tonight I made Justin an apron. All by myself without a pattern or anything. YAY ME!

Although I did break the needle on the sewing machine. But I replaced it all by myself...YAY ME!

He wants to apron to put paint brushes and what-not in when he paints at his easel. It is made out of one of his old tank tops. So the Swoosh and the nike symbol were both already on the shirt. It has 5 pockets. 3 in the big part and then 2 smaller ones on the outside.

Today...

Today...
Work 1/2 day
Register Anaya for school
Register Anaya for cheerleading
Grocery shop
Pay Bills
Put away laundry

Last night Anaya & I went over to our neighbor's house and hung out there for a while (like 3 hours). It was good to sit and chat with people besides family.

Also, I need to start blogging from home because I have no pictures to post when I'm at work. And I think pictures really make blogs more interesting.

so much to do....

There's so much that I want to do and so little time to accomplish it.

I finally finished the 4th of July box that I seriously started on the 4th of July. It's been mostly done since the 6th, but I hadn't gotten around to choosing, cropping and ordering pictures until this weekend. I had planned on giving it as a gift to Miranda, it was her BBQ that we went to and mostly her kids in the pictures. We almost went to visit her this weekend so that prompted the finishing of the box. But since Anaya & I might have Bronchitis, we decided to stay home. I need to call the doctor and find out if I have bronchitis...yay...

And there's nothing like Bon Jovi to get your day started out right... :)

*Whoaah, living on a prayer....whoaah, we're half way there...*

And I'm really lovin the shirt that I have on today. I got it at Kohl's this weekend. It's not a style I would normally buy, but Justin and Anaya liked it so I got it. And I *love* it! :)

Stuffed

I'm so incredibly full! Oh my goodness. I brought leftover meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn for lunch. And I ate way too much. And I can I just say that I make the *best* meatloaf. It is seriously good. Even Anaya likes it and she doesn't usually like Meatloaf. Justin loves it and my dad even likes it. We had my dad over for dinner last night and Justin vetoed my idea of Hamburger Helper, so instead we had Meatloaf. And it was fabulous. And now I'm stuffed.

The lady with the county cheerleading group hasn't responded yet. But the church has sign ups for their Cheerleading & Flag Football teams next week, so that sounds like it might be the new plan. Which is fine with me. But it only lasts from Aug through the end of Oct. Which is only 3 months worth of cheerleading. Then at the end of Oct we could get her signed up for Gymnastics. Or swim lessons. Although I'm not sure she's ready for session 3 of swim lessons.

Exhausted

I'm so freaking tired right now. Between going to the zoo yesterday and then reading Harry Potter until 1am, I wore myself out. And now it is 2 pm and all I want to do it crawl into my nice comfy bed and sleep. For many many hours. Instead, I will continue working until about 5pm. Then I'll drive home and have dinner. Then at 7 is it time for WIGBY, so we'll go to WIGBY. Then I'll get home around 8:30 and I'll really just want to sleep, but instead I'll get Anaya ready for bed and read her a chapter from Harry Potter #1. Then I'll crawl into my bed and probably read a few chapters from Harry Potter #7 and end up being awake until 1 am again.

The Zoo

Can someone remind me why I thought going to the Zoo would be fun? And next time such a thought enters my head, remind me of this. Thanks.

Actually, it wasn't bad. It was just a long, hot, expensive day. We got there right around 11am. First we went saw the Sea Lions. Then we walked through the KidZone to the Discovery Barn and saw the Koalas. Then Anaya rode a camel and feed some goats. Then we went on the Tiger Trail to see the Tigers, Red Pandas and Orangutans. Then off to Australia for the Kangaroos and to pet some sheep. Back to the KidZone for lunch. Then we went to Africa! We rode on the boat and saw Zebras, Giraffes, Hippos, Rhinos, and Lions. We skipped the Chimp house and the Leopards and Gorillas, and the Baboons and Wild Dogs. Then we rode the Tram up from Africa and saw the Elephants and the Flamingos from the Tram. Anaya got to ride the Endangered Species Carousel and we watched the Sea Lion show. Then we left, at 4pm. FIVE HOURS LATER! And we got to drive home in rush hour traffic, go us!

Irritated

So, a few weeks ago my mom emailed me and asked if I had pre-ordered Harry Potter or if she needed to. I said that I was planning to, but if she wanted to pre-order it instead that was fine with me. Well, turns out she pre-ordered it for herself. And I have to wait until Tuesday to read any of it. :( I so freaking irritated at her. She hasn't read ANY of the Harry Potter books, but this one she wants to read for some reason. If I'd known she was gonna keep it and read it first, I would've ordered my own copy at Borders and picked it up at Midnight last night.

some pictures

I realized yesterday that I haven't posted any pictures in a really long time. These are some flowers outside of the pool where Anaya's swim lessons were. I want to know what kind they are, so if you know please let me know! I love them and when I make my flowerbed in the front, I think these would be perfect!

I got my hair cut today. I have a ton of pictures that I need to crop, upload and order. I haven't even order *any* pictures from our trip to Branson in June.

So Moody...

I've been so moody recently. I hate it. It is "that week" when I get more moody that usual, but I still need to figure out how to get it under control. It's not fun for me and it's not fair to Justin or Anaya.

I particularly don't like how long it takes for me to get un-moody. Once I get in a funk, there's not a whole lot anyone can do to get me out of it and generally any attempts just backfire and make it worse.

Particularly when Justin or Anaya decide to start poking me. I hate being poked. I always have. I don't know why. We were in Anaya's room hanging her stuff animal net (finally) and Anaya comes in and pokes Justin in the butt once and then comes over to me and starts repeatedly poking me in the butt singing a little song. Drove me to the unhappy place faster than anything else. Poking is just something I really really do not like. Especially on my butt...during *that week*. Then Justin and I are standing in the kitchen and he decides to go poking crazy because he thinks it is funny to watch me squirm when I don't know where he is going to poke and then random poke my boobs and my belly and my hips. And I really truly do not enjoy it but nothing I say gets that across because he thinks this is great because I'm ticklish. But it drives me up the wall and really puts me in a bad mood.

And just now, Justin calls me and asks me when swim lessons are for Anaya. They've been written on the calendar all month long. We've looked at the calendar. I've pointed them out on the calendar. But he's in the basement and instead of walking up the stairs to the kitchen to look, he calls me and asks me. Not a huge deal, but come-on. And when I told him it was on the calendar and instead of calling me at work he ought to just look, he got huffy about how he didn't think I'd written the next set on the calendar yet! Seriously? Walk upstairs and look for yourself before bugging me about it. That's why the calendar is there, so that you don't have to call me in order to find out when stuff is going on.

they are so HILARIOUS!

The people at my work think they are so freaking funny.

Justin's car is at the dealership still and he got a call from them saying, "We're still not sure what exactly is wrong with it. We drove it, there's something wrong, but we still need to figure it out. Do you want a rental car?" Justin said, yes (since it is free and will help us out so that he doesn't have to drive me to work). Anyways, so I sent out an email to my co-workers that said, "I have to leave about 4:30. Justin needs to pick up a rental car." My boss responds, "Have you thought about getting him a weight set." What the hell. It took me a second to get it pick up as in lift versus pick up as in go and get it. So maybe I could've phrased my email, "Justin needs me to take him to get a rental car." But seriously.

Yesterday

I stayed home from work yesterday. I had planned to take the morning off, but then with Justin's Dr Appt starting late and lasting forever. Then having to pick him up at the dealership because his car needed to be looked at. And then having to take him to CVS to pick up his scripts from the pharmacy. It was better just to stay home the rest of the day.

Anaya had her swimming lesson *test* yesterday and today. She passed session #1. Which is good since she starts session #2 next week. I took her to swim lessons yesterday and took pictures of her with her class mates. They have her class in the 2'6" section of the pool. For *most* of the kids this means the water comes up to almost their chin when they are just standing in the water. For Anaya, the water hits about mid-chest. Because she's 7 (almost 8) and I think the next oldest kid was probably 6. And I think most of the kids were 5. But oh well, such is life. She can now float on both her front and back, and quasi-swim using arm and leg movements with her face in the water. After next week she should be able to swim for 15 ft(!), tread water and swim on her side. I can't wait. After seeing how she does with all that, we *might* let her start having supervised jumps into the deep end (5'6"). They don't actually do that in swim lessons until session #3, which she can't take until next summer. Unless they have swim lessons at the Jr Highs during the school year since they have indoor pools.

Anyway, then after swim lessons, we to my mom's pool for a while. And then I made my big mistake for the day. Actually going to the pool may have been the mistake. We went to the pool while waiting for Justin to get done at the doctor because after the doctor he was dropping his car off and we'd have to pick him up. I did not swim (I did not even wear my suit) because I was planning to go to work in the afternoon and didn't want to smell like pool. When Justin called, we should've gone home, had Anaya change, then head up to the dealership. Instead we went from pool to dealership (where Anaya & I sat in the car w/ a.c. on for 15 minutes at least and she argued at me about the age of dad's car, twice) to CVS (where we went in and anaya wore her swim coverup which I evidently tied too tight but instead of telling me nicely she starts whining and complaining and pulling on it and all that nonsense in the middle of the store which drove me up the wall and then i yelled at her and i was the mean mommy). If we had gone home and she had changed, none of it would've happened. And we wouldn't have sat in the car for 15 minutes because we would've gotten there after dad already gotten the car dropped off instead of getting there at the exact same time as dad. So yeah. I don't like being mean mom. Particularly not in the store. And I will be working on it. And I probably wouldn't have been mean mom, even with her attitude in the store, if we hadn't had to sit in the for 15 minutes with her arguing with me about how old dad's car was. Until I finally told her to either stop arguing about it or shut up. She shut up.

gossip and things overheard

A few years ago, before my company split into two companies...before I got married. About the time I actually met Justin. There was a girl that worked for my old company named Jenny. She was a nice girl and I attempted to be friends with her since we were closed to the same age and both named Jenny(i). We never really became friends. We hung out a few times outside of work. We went line dancing together. But never really became *friends*. Just kind of work friends. Then she moved on to work somewhere else. Also during this time, there was a boy that work with my old company named Andy. I had a minor crush on him. We also never really became friends outside of work. Although we did work together well and we went to lunch together, we just never hung out outside of work. Well, I was listening to people talk in my boss's office and heard that Jenny and Andy got married. So I went to Bed Bath & Beyond and searched for them. Figured out how to spell his last name (now her last name) and found out they got married in June of this year. Now, even though our company split about 2 yrs ago, and neither of them work for the original company anymore, I would've kind of expected them to send an announcement or something to us. Not necessarily a wedding invitation, I still work here and I didn't invite anyone from work to my wedding. But possibly a reception invitation or just an announcement of "Hey, we got married!". The original company was a small company - maybe 10 employees - and most of those employees still work for this company which is also small - 11 employees. So it's not like sending a wedding announcement to a company of 500 people where most of them don't even know who you are. Anyways, other interesting tidbit - they got married at Powell Gardens. Just like I did. I don't know if they got married in the chapel or somewhere else on the grounds, but it was still kinda weird because I don't know anyone else that got married out there.

So tonight...

I *have* to make some "we missed you" cards for my Sunday School class.

I would *love* to get my scraproom cleaned up a little bit.

I *must* pay some bills - electric, home phone, tv/internet, nextel.

I *will probably* go outside with Anaya so that she can ride her bike or scooter.

Tomorrow I'm taking the morning off work because Justin has a Doctor appointment so I am taking Anaya to swim lessons.

Oh, and I'm soooo freaking hungry. And I really don't want my SmartOne's Santa Fe Chicken. It didn't sound good this morning and it doesn't sound good now. But it is what I brought so that is what I'll have. :( However, 2 pts for SmartOne + 1 pt for bread + 0 pts for salad w/ ff dressing = 3 pts for lunch! Then 2 pts for yogurt for snack. And I'll probably say 1 pt for my coffee this morning since I used QT's creamer and I don't know the actual pt values. And probably 1 pt for all the Crystal Light I plan to drink today. And 3 pts for cereal w/ milk for breakfast. Today so far: 10 pts. That leaves 12 pts for dinner. :)

We All Survived!

We all survived the weekend with JoJo. And we actually had a pretty good time. Although by Sunday when we took her home, I was ready for it just the be the three of us again.

I emailed a lady today about getting Anaya into cheerleading in Olathe. The registration date was March 3. So we are VERY late, but worst that happens is she says no. And if I don't ask, then she can't say yes. And on the website it says late registration is at the discretion of the area director. We'll see what happens.

Sleepovers

We've got one of Anaya's step-sisters, JoJo, spending the weekend with us. Justin and Anaya picked her up today and we take her back on Sunday.

We don't have anything major planned for this weekend. I'm making Justin go to a wedding with me, so Anaya & JoJo will get to spend some time with my mom. We'll probably go to the pool at some point, but no probably not until Sunday.

We need to see about getting JoJo's mom's phone number so that we can set sometimes up with her that JoJo can visit when she's not at Anaya's mom's house. And there are way too many different mom's and dad's involved in this story

Yay!

I actually scrapped last night! Anaya was working on a craft. Painting some flower shaped hooks so I pulled some scrapping stuff out and sat at the kitchen table with her and finished an entire layout. I already had the pictures cut up and my sketch done, all I had to do was put the actual layout together. I didn't use very many embellishments. The paper is way bright so I'm not sure if it really needs *anything* else. I'll post a pic of it tonight. :)

Kimbi & I took Anaya to the pool last night. She was playing with these two girls that were there from church and they were on the ramping splashing into the water and she tripped and fell down and skinned up her knees pretty bad. She has the big 3" x 3" band-aids on each knee. Luckily she doesn't have swim lessons today so she'll be able to let her knees heal a little before she'll be back in the water.

maybe tonight

Maybe tonight I will finally get to scrap. It's unlikely, but maybe. Kimbi wants to go to the pool tonight so we'll probably do that around 7:30-ish. Stay there for about an hour. I also need to fix something for the work BBQ we're having tomorrow. Oh and on my way home, I gotta run by the bank. I should probably put new songs on Anaya's MP3 player also, she's been wanting Miley Cyrus on there and I just haven't gotten around to sitting down with her and figuring out which songs I can remove so that I can fit Miley on it.

Last night I went up to Michaels and got 5 of their dollar acrylic stamps. I love those things so much. I would've bought all 12 of them, but I only had $5 (and change for tax).

I'm so incredibly exhausted. Maybe tonight I'll get to bed before midnight.

what i want vs what i get

I really want to go home tonight, clean up my scrapping room and do something. I have pictures, I have sketches, I have paper, but I don't have the time to put it all together.

Instead, I'm stopping at the grocery store on the way home, getting home, probably cooking dinner. Then taking Anaya up to the church for WIGBY (Wednesdays In God's Back Yard). Then I'm coming home and sitting on the couch and writing numbers on wires for work. And I'm writing trivia questions on MTurk for make a few extra dollars, probably not enough to make it worth while, but I said I would do it and I have 88 more that I need to write. Maybe I'll take the wires with me to church and while Anaya's having fun at WIGBY I'll go in the Sanctuary and listen to the Wednesday sermon and write numbers on wires. Still probably won't get to scrap tonight at all. Which is my own fault for agreeing to do so much other stuff.

WHY?!

So, I woke Justin up this morning and said, "It's 8:30, you need to get up soon, Anaya's swim lessons are at 9:50, you need to leave by 9:30 since it is the first day." I left for work, got here, was having some problems with things so didn't get around to calling him until 9:35 when he should have been gone. He didn't answer the home phone or his cell phone. Well, finally he calls me back at 9:42 (I know, finally is all of 7 minutes later). And he had pretty much JUST left the house. Because Anaya threw a hissy fit because I forgot to get her Miley Cyrus cd out of my car. And Justin decided to have a talk with her about that...prior to getting in the car. He just called me and they got there pretty close to on time.

Now, I agree with having a talk with her about the cd and how she shouldn't throw a hissy fit because I forgot to do something that we have on multiple occasions told her if she wants her cd out of the car, she needs to ask for it when we get back to the house as we are getting out of the car. Not just expect us to remember to grab her cd. But I had told her this morning that I would get it out, then with waking Justin up and getting Anaya's swim cover-up tied around her neck and getting my lunch ready, I was running late and didn't remember that it was in my car until I was half way to work.

The real reason I'm annoyed isn't because she's a little late for swim lessons. It's because anytime I ask him to do one little thing: empty the dishwasher, take the trash out, switch the laundry over, etc... He forgets. He doesn't do it. And then when I get home, after being at work all day, I have to do laundry, mess with the dishes, take the trash out (which at that point is overflowing). And then if I don't do those things, within a few days, he starts bitching about the house looking trashed. I'm so tired of working full time, doing house work, keeping the kiddo entertained, giving him my opinion on his latest painting, paying the bills, etc when he is home all day long and could at least get some of that stuff done. Now don't get me wrong, I love the kiddo and have no problem with hanging out with her, but sometimes it would be nice if he would take over for a little bit without (a) sending her off to play a video game, or (b) having her sit down in front of the TV.

A lot of the time he seems to think that he is the only one that wants to do something besides whatever the kiddo wants to do. Why does he think that just because he wants to paint every hour of every day means that he gets to? I took 2 days off work last week and had the 4th off and then Saturday & Sunday. So, 5 days that I was home all day. You wanna now how much time I spent doing stuff I wanted to do? Not much. I know I spent some time doing my own thing, or at least things without the kiddo. I won't necessarily say I was doing what I wanted to be doing since I also mowed the lawn, completely cleaned the kitchen, and did 5 loads of laundry. I did get to read quite a bit of my book. But a lot of that was done after Anaya was in bed or while she was out front playing since we don't like sending her out front alone. And I did get a little scrapping done because I went to the crop at the church, although I took Anaya with me and she scrapbooked and did a few other crafts. And I did go to JoAnn's with my mom for about 2.5 hours. So, yeah. That's the stuff I did "for me".

Maybe I Am A Stick In The Mud

Anaya's mom wants to take her (and presumably the other kids) to the midnight showing of Harry Potter when it comes out. And I think this is not necessarily a wise parenting idea. And I admit that I may just be a stick in the mud. But I seriously don't think you need to take a child (you know, 7 yrs old) to a midnight showing. Particularly when you know that the child has swimming lessons at 10am the next morning.

Would Anaya enjoy it? probably.
Will it hurt her in the long run? probably not.
Will she be tired and cranky the next day? quite possibly.
If her mom actually follows through on arranging it, will I tell Anaya to have a good time? yes.

Okay, what do you (oh blog reader) think...Am I being a stick in the mud?

I feel defeated...

I am so overwhelmed by bills.

We got a statement from the dentist today for the work that he has had done this year. $1400. No, I did not accidentally put an extra zero on the end. Where in the world will I find $1400. Seriously. And he still needs a root canal. And he has reached his individual maximum on our dental insurance. Which means *any* more dental work for him between now and 1/1/2008, comes directly out of our pocket.

And my last 0% card comes due in August. I technically have enough money to pay it off, it's just in my savings account right now.

I mean, really, it should all be okay. Justin is getting paid again so we'll have $1000 more each month. And at least a little of that (like 1 paycheck) should be able to go to savings. But it is still so overwhelming. And I really have a problem spending money. Which is my main concern. Yeah, we'll be getting $1000 more, but how much more will that make us think we can spend.

Easter Layout...

An Easter Layout. Ain't it cute?

another layout!

Wow, I must be on some kind of scrapbooking kick! Here's another layout. This layout is of Anaya playing with those magic grow sponge animals

a layout and a card

Here is a Thank You card that I made for my mom. She helped me sew a dress for Anaya just because I wanted to try making a dress. So I made her a card last night after we finished sewing. I'm much better at making cards than at sewing.

And this is a layout that I made of a jewelry box that Anaya made. Well, it came all put together and white, she just painted and decorated it.

blah

Today is lame. And it is not even 11am.

I made a layout and a card last night. The card is way cute. I took a picture of it this morning but didn't have time to get it uploaded before I had to leave for hell work. The layout is so adorable (in my opinion) minus the fact that I used the value pack cardstock from Michaels (1 pack = 50 sheets = $0.99 yesterday!) and then I painted on it and then the cardstock got all warped. Which I guess is why I ought to buy some Bazzill cardstock. Because that stuff is high quality. However it is also $0.50 for 1 sheet. And I'm a little cheap.


Hopefully tonight I'll get the layout and card uploaded so everyone else can see their cuteness.

Frog Prince

I know the picture is a little blurry, but you get the idea.

oh man

VBS IS OVER!!! I'm so incredibly excited about VBS being over. I can finally get back to real life. My house will get cleaned this weekend because right now, it is a pigsty. We have a bad habit of coming in and dropping everything on the loveseat in the livingroom. Mail, shopping bags, stuff from VBS, my purse, everything ends up on the loveseat. Usually I attempt to find the loveseat under all the stuff, but this week as been so busy that I haven't even looked at that pile...just continued to drop everything there.

So yeah. I think tonight I will clean. And hopefully go through all my pictures from Branson (finally) to decide which ones I want to order and think about my layouts so that I can shrink pictures down appropriately.

Saturday, mom & I are going out to Independence to this mansion/museum thing. They have a Hall China exhibit and my mom & I collect Jewel Tea dishes by Hall China. Then she wants to go to Archivers and JoAnns. I'm thinking about making her go out to the Scrapbook Page with me too. They are having a design team contest. It's $10 for the packet of materials and the completed pages are due on the 29th. But then I have the whole afternoon to scrapbook. And finish all the other cleaning/mowing/bill paying that hasn't been happening this week.

On Sunday, I have promised Justin we will go to Old Navy and get him some new shorts. I'll probably also get Anaya a few new pairs of shorts. Possibly some scrapping will happen.

Also, I started another blog. The new one is about activities for Kids to do in Kansas City. Here's the link: http://kidsinkc.blogspot.com/

Wowwe

So, I think this is the longest I have gone without blogging since I got this blog. I've just been so busy! I'm helping out with Vacation Bible School (VBS) at my church this week and it is kicking my butt. Not to mention we have Anaya, so that she can go to VBS, which means I'm having to get up early (6:45-ish) to get her up and get her ready for summer school so that Justin can leave here by 7:30 to get her there by 8:30. Then I work all day and then I come home, have a quick dinner, and out the door to VBS. It is crazy. But I'm doing crafts with the 1st through 3rd graders so it is a lot of fun. I'm happy that I'm with the younger group instead of the 4th through 6th graders. Evidently the workers with them are just standing around. That would be sooo boring.

Oh, the most exciting news of all. Anaya is supposed to be coming to live with us for 2nd grade. For now it is only for 2nd grade. Which kind of sucks for Anaya because she'll switch schools to come here for a year and then if her mom decides she wants her back she'll be switching schools again to go back over there.

And, more exciting news, insurance FINALLY started paying Justin again. In fact, I need to go deposit the check this morning.

Oh man has it been a good week. A busy week, but a good one. :)

Submitted Again...

Well, I submitted another layout to Creating Keepsakes. The only problem is the pictures are from May 2006 of our trip to Atlantis and the layout would be in the November magazine. And while they *say* seasonal pictures are not a requirement, just a plus. I realize that if it comes down to mine or one with seasonal pictures, the seasonal pictures will get probably picked. I've just already done all my fall/winter layouts. But I submitted it and I absolutely *adore* the layout, so either way, I win. :)


And now it's time to leave for work. Boo-Hiss.

finally...

So, last night I finally went through all of my Atlantis pictures and have them all set up to make a 2-pg layout that will go in our family album as just an overview of our trip to Atlantis. I left a blank spot in the family album for this page, but just wasn't motivated to do it after making an entire album about Atlantis. But I really wanted something in the family book too.

However, as I was going through my Atlantis pictures, I realized how few pictures I actually took. I think my mom took more pictures than I did. And a lot of my pictures are just of the scenery. I know for a fact I took way more pictures during our 3 days in Branson than I did for the 5-6 days we were in Atlantis. But then again, pretty much all we did in Atlantis was sit by the pool; so there really wasn't that much to take pictures of.

"Oh look, there's Kimbra by the pool."
"Oh look, here's another one of Kimbra by the pool."
"Here's one of Justin by the pool."
"And here's one of Jenni and Justin by the pool."

Oh well.

Effer Dare #68

This is my take on the Effer Dare #68. The challenge was to take a self portrait- with no make-up and your hair undone. Which isn't really a challenge for me since I don't wear make-up and my hair looks the same brushed as unbrushed. But, here's my page:

and....I'm back.

Well, I have returned from Branson. Most of us had fun. Justin was pretty whiny the whole time because his knee hurt and he got bit by bugs and he just really didn't want to be there in the first place. But we still managed to have a good time.

Friday: We drove down there (which sucked a lot). Got there a little after 1:00pm. Went to our cabin, checked in, unpacked the car. Then we went to the Branson Belle. Which is a Showboat. It was really entertaining. We had dinner on the boat, then we walked around on the different decks and we went up to the wheel house and the captain gave us his spiel about the boat. After spending sometime wondering about, it was time for the show. They had a group of singer/dancers called "The Showstoppers" who preformed songs from well-known musicals. Then they had these AMAZING Russians that we ballet/trapeze people. It was really neat. Then they had a ventriloquists come out with some dogs that he made talk. After the Showboat, we just went back to the cabin. Anaya, Kimbi and I went to pool and swam for a while. Then after the kiddo went to bed, the adults stayed up and played Phase 10.

Saturday: We got up. My mom made biscuits and gravy (YUMMY). Today, the plan was to visit some museums and do some activities in downtown Branson. First stop was the Butterfly Palace. Which was neat, but WAAAY overpriced. Anaya enjoyed it though. Although even she was like, "OK, we've looked at the butterflies long enough!" Then we went to the Titanic museum. Do NOT take a 7-yr old to the Titanic museum. It was interesting. However, it took longer that I would've preferred and cost more than I would have preferred. In fact, I think we all would've been better off if we had split into groups and had Justin, Anaya & I go to the Butterfly Palace and then Mom, Dad, Matt & Kimbi go to the Titanic Museum. Justin and I just didn't get much out of the Titanic museum because we had a kiddo that was bored and hanging on us to deal with. But that is one of those live and learn type of things. Then we had lunch at this buffet that was lame. Then we went to Tanger Outlet mall. They had a Gap Outlet. It was fabulous, I got a dress for $10! They also had an Old Navy outlet. I didn't actually look for anything for me there, but we got Anaya two pairs of jean shorts and a tank top. I've been wanting to get her jean shorts because she always wears colored cotton shorts and has just a hard time matching them to shirts - she thinks matching means wearing and all pink shirt with her all pink shorts (the same color of pink) which is matching, but not necessarily good. Plus, I think jean shorts just look better than cotton shorts. Anyways, then we went to Ride The Ducks. And we rode a Duck, one of those amphibious vehicles. Captain Bob drove us through Branson, up to the third highest point in Branson and then down and into Table Rock Lake. As far as we can tell, the only reason they go out on Table Rock Lake is to let the kids drive. He let each kiddo go up to the front, sit in the Captains' chair and "drive". Then after each kiddo got their turn at the wheel, we went back on land. After the ducks we just went back to the cabin. Although Matt was worried about traffic waiting to go to Silver Dollar City because on our way out in the morning there was a line seriously more than 2 miles long. And our cabin was down on Indian Point, past Silver Dollar City. So, he decided we would go "the back way." All the way around the south side of Table Rock Lake. It took an hour to get back to the cabin, if we'd gone the other way, it would've taken 10-15 minutes. Some of us went to the pool again. Then dinner, Clue and more cards!

Sunday: Pancakes and Bacon. YUMMY! I should take my mom more places with me since she always cooks such good food. After breakfast, Anaya, Kimbi and I went to the pool again. Stayed there for almost an hour and then went back to the cabin and got packed up to leave. Then we got all of our stuff loaded into the Yukon again. And there was more stuff to take home than there was on the way down because Kimbi and I went shopping and Anaya had souvenirs. Anyways, finally got it all loaded up into the Yukon and headed into Branson. We went to Pirate's Cove Mini Golf and played a round of mini golf. Then we went to Kris Kringel's Christmas Store where Anaya got Santa's business card, complete with phone number. Then we left Branson. We went to Springfield where we ate lunch. Then we drove home, which took somewhere close to FOREVER!

Old Friends

It is weird connecting with old friends.

A few months ago. Okay, probably like 6 or more. I met up with an old friend of mine from High School. I hadn't seen her probably since my sophomore year of college. So, you know, 5 yrs or so. And we hung out for one evening with another friend we had both kept in touch with. I found her on MySpace and added her as a friend, but we've never made any attempt to meet up again. When we started out high school, we were best friends. At least that is the way I remember it. Probably the way my mom remembers it too. Sometime during junior year we had a bit of a falling out when she started dating my ex and I started dating the 24-yr-old Jehovah Witness that I worked for (it was only an 8-yr age difference). Anyways, so sometimes when I'm looking through my friends on MySpace, I see her there and I click on her profile and think about how good of friends we used to be. Which leads me to thinking of all the other people that I used to be good friends with, but really, how good of friends were we if we didn't take the time or put forth the effort to continue our friendship after high school?

And then there are the other people that I used to be friends with. The ones that I don't particularly want to renew a friendship with, but whom I can't help but look for. There was one girl that this describes perfectly. She is one of the few people from high school that I continued to be friends with during college. Every summer I would come home and we would hang out. We'd call each other while I was at college. We make plans to do things together over any breaks when I would be home, even if I'd only be there for a few days. She talked about us getting an apartment together when I graduated. I wasn't sure I wanted to. Then I graduated. And I called her a few times. And she rarely called me back. We went out to lunch once that first summer after college. But eventually, I got tired of calling and not getting callbacks, I got sick of leaving messages that would never be returned. Eventually, I invited her to my wedding reception, and she came. Occasionally, she'll forward me an email that she thinks is funny. I emailed her back once to ask what was going on in her life, she never responded. Sometimes I'll search MySpace for her. I never find her. I'm not sure I really want to.

weekends are never long enough...

...luckily I only have to work for 4 days this week. I'm taking off Friday and we're going to Branson for the weekend. And by we, I mean all of us.

Oh, and I took the box that I made for Kimbi to church with my yesterday to show Carrie since she was at the crop when I started making it. I showed it to Kathy and she showed it to a bunch of the other girls and they want me to teach a class on how to make it. So I talked to my mom about it yesterday at lunch, and some Monday night I'm going to teach my Sunday School class and some ladies from my mom's office to make those boxes.

Then last night, I went to R&R (our Sunday School class's evening get-together). It was fun. Although I think I'm over my baby infatuation. I held Brileigh, the not even 6-month old baby of Brian and Courtney (not THAT Courtney), and she was cute and all, but then she started fussing and wouldn't stop and I didn't really know what to do to make her stop, so I gave her back to the parents, but I felt silly because all the other people (guys included) that came to R&R held her and managed to get her to not be fussy. All that to say, I never really was a baby-person and I don't think I am now.

something for kimbi

This is the scrapbook box that I made for Kimbi. It is all pictures of her and Matt. The quote in the middle says, "Love doesn't make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile." I really like this box. Although I think I messed up on a lid just a little bit. It's a little too big. But oh well.