Life is What you Make it

Scrap-Friendzy Blog Hop

2011-02-08T22:56:00.007-06:00

Welcome to your 6th stop on the “Friends with He{art}” Blog Hop sponsored by Scrap-Friendzy! If you are following the links from the beginning of the hop, you should have come from Cheryl's blog. If not, and you wish to participate in the blog hop, please start at the Scrap-Friendzy blog HERE.

Today, I am excited to share a couple of things with you--one paper and the other yummy! I'll start with the paper otherwise you'll run off to the kitchen and never make it through this post! LOL!

Drew is in Pre-K this year and the paper crafter in me cannot just go to the store and buy a pack of regular Valentine's cards for her class party. That would just be WAY TOO EASY and of course I can't do that! LOL! I also didn't want to buy a bunch of candy to add to the piles I'm sure they'll be getting already so I decided to get microwave popcorn. Drew loves to make popcorn so I'm hoping the other kids in her class do too! I came up with a pretty simple (aka EASY) way to make it look festive and Drew can help me do the rest.

Supplies:

Package of Microwave Popcorn
12" x 12" cardstock (each sheet will cover 2 bags)
stickers, patterned paper, etc for embellishing

1. Cut cardstock to 6" x 12".

2. Score at 4.25" & 8.5" to create 3 sections. (You may need to adjust this depending on your popcorn package.)

3. Wrap cardstock around the popcorn package. I used a tiny bit of tape to hold the popcorn pack in place.

4. Embellish as you wish.

Drew will be helping me make the ones she'll give to her classmates this weekend and I'll be sure to share her creations when they're done! She LOVES sticking stickers so they are sure to be quite decorated! LOL!

Now for the YUMMY!

I've recently discovered the site Our Best Bites. They post some of the most wonderful recipes and I've tried a few things so far. The popcorn recipes were a HUGE hit with our friends and family over Christmas. The other day I made their Reese's Peanut Butter Bars and they are absolutely DELICIOUS! I mean how could you go wrong with peanut butter, butter, and chocolate? Before I scarfed them down I tried to be all fancy and take a few pics! LOL! Clearly I am not a food photographer though it was much easier than trying to snap a pic of Tiny--the food neither yells at nor runs from me! LOL!

They are really easy to make and would make great teacher treats for Valentine's Day. One pan would be more than enough for several gifts.

In addition to the Blog Hop prize given by Scrap-Friendzy, I'm offering a small RAK too. Leave me a comment with something you're making for Valentine's Day--either paper or sugary (or anything else you find cool!) and I'll put your name in a drawing for a cute assortment of Valentine's embellishments.

Your next stop on the blog hop will be Amy's blog. Don't forget to leave a comment here, and on each stop on the blog hop. Then, make sure you finish up at the Scrap-Friendzy forum and post that you have completed the hop. Your name will be entered into a drawing for a fabulous prize! We're also hosting a weekend crop from Friday, February 11 through Sunday, February 13 on the forum – hope you will join in the fun!

Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the rest of the hop!

My New Favorite

2010-10-23T16:12:00.003-05:00

And of course it's a lift! LOL! I love Susan Weinroth's blog. It's full of fun, bright colors, creative layouts, & even awesome quilts (which I'd love to make one day but don't really know how to sew so that could be an issue! LOL!). I think all of her pages are great but I really loved one that she did recently for Studio Calico. I didn't have any of the papers or supplies that she used but I did copy the design with what I had. I love the result! It's my new favorite!

I've been busy!

2010-10-16T12:48:00.004-05:00

I've been really working on organizing my scraproom so that I can spend a bit more time creating and less time hunting and searching! LOL! I showed my brad organization results a few posts ago but I've also done all of my flowers, buttons, & clear stamps.

I took all of the flowers out of their jars/bottles (Remember those cute bottles Prima first came out with? Cute but they took up SO MUCH room!) and sorted everything by color. All of the tiny ones went into a plastic bowl like container and the larger ones went into small ziplocks which I sorted into index card file boxes. I have one of each for each color and it takes up much less space than all of those assorted bottles and jars.

Most of my buttons were already sorted by color in a hardware type drawer unit (Thank You Pitts Hardware! LOL!) but I still had an entire box of random bags, packs, jars, etc that needed a home.

These were the only Prima bottles that didn't get tossed. They were just too cute to get rid of so I repurposed them for some special buttons.

Not bad, huh?

I'll share pics & details of my clear stamp storage soon!

Simply Obsessed October Kit Projects

2010-10-15T18:21:00.000-05:00

Although this kit is "Back to School" themed I created 3 non-school related layouts. That just proves how versatile it really is!

With a little creative layering I was able to cover up any mention of "school" on the papers allowing me to use them on a vacation page. The white "patterned paper" on this layout is actually the packaging from the Pink Paislee Canvas borders & I used a patch I purchased at the museum as my title.

Another vacation layout from the Railroad Museum. Once again I used the packaging for my white title/journaling block. I cut the letters on my die-cut machine from the red patterned paper. I thought the zipper border looked really railroad track-ish (It's a word! LOL!) so it was perfect for this page. I turned the + sign a bit and made it look like a Railroad Crossing Symbol.

The Fleur De Lis was a perfect accent for my layout about the Superbowl game played by the New Orleans Saints. And of course this event had to be documented! It was the first time in 14 years of marriage that my husband watched a football game! LOL! He said that he wanted to see what all the fuss was about! LOL!

I was on a mission!

2010-09-17T10:34:00.003-05:00

I love brads and have an enormous amount of them! To find the one I want to use I spend forever digging through piles and packages! Not anymore! Check out this amazing transformation!

I'm still working on all the tiny brads. I'm sorting those by color also and storing them in those tic-tac like containers.

Simply Obsessed September Kit

2010-09-16T10:58:00.001-05:00

I am so happy to be back on the team at Simply Obsessed and what an awesome kit to start with! I love anything with distressed edges so these papers are right up my alley! And the colors of this kit can really go with a wide variety of themes.

I used a piece of Core'dinations Cardstock on this one to add a bit of texture. The butterflies matched Addyson's dress perfectly.

On this next layout I was inspired to use song lyrics as my title because of the music print flower. The chipboard letters (LOVE), twill, & dark blue cardstock are all from my stash. I really liked the heart die cut in the kit but the print on it was a bit distracting for my page so I used it as a template and cut my own. I can now use the original on something else.

I created the music print paper by tea-dying (with coffee...so I guess technically I "coffee-dyed" it! LOL!) a piece of cardstock. Once it was dry I ironed it flat and stamped the music onto it. Add a little ink around the edges and you have a nice vintage looking piece. (And it smells good too! LOL!)

The flower was a bit big so I took the back layer off and will use it on something else later.

I collect vintage cameras (Aren't they the coolest?!?) and the die cut/journal spot in the kit couldn't have been more perfect for this page! I cut it apart so that it would fit in with my collage better. The houndstooth print just screamed "vintage" to me. The small letter/number stickers are from my stash. This is actually just the left side of a 2 pager--still working on the other half.

This next piece is just a fun little wall-hanging I came up with. The images & butterfly are from the kit and the rest is just bits & pieces I had lying around. I cut the crown from the MME die-cut sheet & adhered just the edges to make it 3-dimensional. I added Stickles to both the crown & the butterfly (The butterfly immediately curled under when I applied the Stickles so proceed with caution.)

As you can see this kit is very versatile and can be used for most anything. I hope to be back in a day or so with a few more layouts--I have 3 started!

Winners!

2010-08-25T21:31:00.003-05:00

Sorry I'm a bit behind at getting my winners posted.

The winner of the "Scrap that Baby Sweet Summertime" blog hop is scrappinsmiles.

The winner of the Simply Obsessed birthday blog hop is Kelly Massman.

If this is you, please email me at bpitts76 (at) hotmail (dot) com with your address and I'll get your prize in the mail! Congrats!

Scrap that Baby's Sweet Summertime Blog Hop

2010-08-17T01:31:00.007-05:00

Welcome to the Scrap that Baby's Sweet Summertime blog hop!!

Thank you so much for hopping along on our first ever blog hop! (The hop officially starts at 8 am EST and y'all know that I won't be up that early so I'm posting this now before I go to bed!)

If you didn't come from Dani's blog or you popped onto this blog and didn't realize we were blog hopping you need to go to Scrap That Baby and start the HOP! You will need to comment on ALL of the blogs to be eligible for the grand prizes listed on the main site. Plus so many of our awesome designers are giving away a prize on their blogs as well. You will not want to miss out. There are MANY, MANY chances to win!

Our theme for this blog hop is SWEET SUMMERTIME!! The members of our design team will be sharing fantastic summer projects, stories, tips or ideas for keeping cool and having fun in the summer with a baby along.

We've had a pretty busy summer and with Drew starting school on Monday, it's all coming to an end. We've been to the San Antonio/Austin area twice. We've had a big birthday party for Miss Drew. We've bought tiny school uniforms, a lunchbox, and lots of crayons for our big girl. Addyson has somehow transformed from a baby to a little girl seemingly overnight. I've battled numerous wars with the many critters that think they need to inhabit our home because theirs' outside is so dang hot. Don't worry! I'll not share any of those stories...today anyways! LOL! Drew got a swing set for her birthday but it's been too hot for her to play much. She did have lots of fun blowing bubbles before it got soooooo hot and of course I took pictures nearly every time. I made this page today with some of those pics. I busted out my new Echo Park papers and some super old KI Memories letters. Remember those ones that came in the cute mini soup cans?

Our blog hop runs from today, August 18th, until August 22nd. Invite your
friends to play for extra entries. You must comment on all the blogs for a chance at the main prize.

The Scrap that Baby blog will be drawing for prizes on Wednesday, August 25th! . I will also draw one lucky winner on Wednesday. All comments on my blog will be entered into a drawing for 2 sets of stamps.

The next stop on the blog hop is........ Gracie-Ann.

**Remember the hop doesn't officially start until 8 am and you must comment on all the blogs to be entered into the grand prize drawing.**

Happy Birthday Simply Obsessed!

2010-08-12T03:37:00.008-05:00

Simply Obsessed is turning 3 and to celebrate we're having a blog hop!

You should have made your way here from Joyce's blog but if you didn't, go over to the SO blog and start from the beginning.

http://www.soscrapbookingkits.blogspot.com/

I'm not a huge fan of themey pages so my birthday layout isn't very traditional. I chose non-birthday papers to match my photos. I used 4 photos to represent Drew's 4th birthday. (Can you believe she's already 4? Wow! It does go by fast!)

I save all of my scraps but I'm terrible about not using them. They just pile up...everywhere! I decided to make a birthday card with the leftovers this time. (I used my new Big Shot to emboss the sentiment!)

In honor of SO's birthday I've decided to give away a little scrappy prize. Leave me a comment and I'll draw a name on Monday.

Now hop on over to Andrea's blog and see what inspiration she has in store for you!

http://imlivinonscraps.blogspot.com/

And don't forget to check out the crop this weekend at SO! Hope to see you there!

http://www.simplyobsessed.com/

A Prize, An Announcement, & A New Layout (or 2!)

2010-08-09T23:23:00.005-05:00

My Last Scrapper Standing prize arrived from Memorable Seasons! Did I even tell y'all that I won? LOL! I did! I won the WHOLE contest! Wow! I've never won something like that before and I'm honored that my pages were liked well enough to win! A Sizzix Big Shot! How cool is that? And it's pink & black--so cute! Just pretend that I don't look so terrible in this pic! LOL!

I've dusted off my cape and have officially rejoined the design team at Simply Obsessed! I was a part of their team for nearly 2 years and it's great to be back. As part of our entry we had to create a new layout about ourselves. I have already done several serious pages about me and I'm just not that interesting so I decided to go a different direction. I went with the weird & quirkiness that makes me me!

And yes! I did take those photos of myself! And yes! I do look like an idiot! And yes! My 4 year old did make fun of me while this was occuring! LOL!

The 52 x 52 challenges have started back up after a break and this week's challenge is to use orange & green, stickers, & hand stitching. Here's what I came up with. The flowers & leaves are clear stickers layered onto paper & cut out.

I went stamp crazy!

2010-07-26T23:07:00.010-05:00

I made it into the Top 3 at Memorable Seasons and the last challenge was to use 3 stamps in 3 different ways. At first I panicked a bit! I'm good at buying stamps (Very good!) but not so good at actually using them! Surprisingly, once I chose some to use, it wasn't that bad--it was really kinda fun! And I may have gone a bit crazy after I got started.

Here are the stamps I chose to use. As you can see there are a few more than 3! LOL!

And the finished product...

Everything except the pink paper and the photos is stamped.

I stamped the number circles on the white background, punched circles in the pink background, and adhered that layer with pop dots to create little windows.

The orange circles around the edge are done with the same stamp I used with the pink paint. I punched the circles out individually and then sewed them around the entire page.

The striped paper was created with a Tim Holtz stamp.

And then because I was on a stamping roll I used more stamps on another page last night! Recognize these people?

The Dress

2010-07-20T01:10:00.004-05:00

I've been wanting to scrap these photos for a long time but wanted the page to be perfect. I have made it into the top 5 & this week's LSS challenge was the perfect opportunity. The challenge was to use 12 inches of hand cut swirls, 12 rhinestones/brads/or buttons, & 12 hand cut flowers.

This dress was mine as a baby and both Drew & Addyson have worn it.

4 Years Ago Today...

2010-07-13T01:30:00.006-05:00

we met this cutie! All 8 pounds, 3 ounces of her and our lives were forever changed!

The past 4 years have been filled with a lot of these...

And lately, a lot of these...

And because this is my blog and because I can I MUST share this photo from the day. Yes it's gross but you have to admit that it's quite possibly the coolest picture ever!

I Fall More in Love with You

2010-07-12T03:27:00.004-05:00

I've made it to Round 4 in the Last Scrapper Standing contest at Memorable Seasons--I'm in the top 8! This week's challenge was to use a solid background and create some sort of pattern using an ordinary/non-scrappy item. My first thought was to use a tire & paint or ink and do a page about my Mustang. Someone else posted a page with tire painting before I even got started and I didn't want to look like a copy cat so I had to go with Plan B. I just didn't have a Plan B at the time! LOL! I finally decided to sand my pattern onto my paper instead of using something as a stamp with paint or ink. I knew that diamond plate would make a cool pattern and I figured I could do a Jeep layout with that. I took my orange cardstock out to the garage to use the diamond plate on my golf cart but realized that it wasn't the typical pattern. I used it anyways and decided that it looked a bit like straw or hay bales and chose some pumpkin patch photos. Despite a minor (well kinda major!) altercation with my sewing machine I managed to come up with a page that I really like. (I know I've said that about all of these pages but for the first time since my pregnancy with Addyson I'm making pages I'm happy with!)

I really hope I make it into the next round. I can't wait to see what the challenge is!

Ooooops! I did it again!

2010-07-05T16:43:00.005-05:00

DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT picture me singing or dancing like Britney Spears when you read that! It will only traumatize you for life! LOL! I am blogging again! And it hasn't even been 9 months! LOL!

This week's challenge was to create a layout with negative space and embellishment clusters. I dug through all my stuff and threw everything I thought would work for the pics I chose into a canvas basket. I may have come up with too much stuff! LOL!

Of course I couldn't fit all that stuff on 100 layouts but I managed to come up with a page that I LOVE! It was pretty fun to layer all those tiny pieces. I may have to do that more often!

Voting ends tomorrow and I'll find out Wednesday if I've made it into the next round.

Don't pass out!

2010-07-04T01:52:00.005-05:00

This is indeed a post from me! LOL! It's been a while huh? :) Facebook has pretty much taken over my blog type posting and I need to get back to posting over here too. I'll try to get back into it!

There's absolutely no way I could possibly summarize the past 9 months on here so I won't even try. We'll just start with now and if you wanna know anything that's gone on in our lives since October just ask! LOL!

For the past few weeks I've been participating in a scrapping contest over at Memorable Seasons. It's a survivor type challenge and I'm happy to say that I have now made it into the Top 10. Even though it's too late to join the survivor part of the contest you can still complete the challenges for a chance at gift certificates or other cool prizes. I can't post my pages in any of my galleries yet but I can share them on here (Yeah! You caught me! The main reason I'm blogging is because I really, really, really want to share these 2 pages! LOL!).

The first week's challenge was "The American Child" & to use stars & stripes. I immediately thought of these photos from last year's 4th of July photo shoot. I really wanted to make a 3-dimensional pinwheel to go along with the photos.
I love red, white, & blue and was very pleased with my outcome.

The second challenge was to create homemade flowers & use a black cardstock background. I knew I wanted to use some of my denim flowers (tutorial will be posted soon!). I love this photo of Jason with the 2 tinies. They love their daddy and he sure loves them! I combined the denim with pearls to make it both masculine and girly. And I broke out the sewing machine for this one! (I'm pretty sure Hollis thought I was gonna sew clothes with it when he got it for me! LOL!)

This week's challenge is to create a layout with a lot of negative space and an embellishment cluster. Both of those are a challenge for me but I managed to make something I'm pleased with. I'll be back to share it tomorrow! (And I'll work on changing my blog header since there is another member in our family--and has been for almost 15 months now! LOL!)

Scrap Friendzy Birthday Blog Hop Day #3

2009-10-03T15:06:00.009-05:00

Welcome to our Birthday Blog Hop & challenge #3!!!

I am so glad that you have joined us to help celebrate our 2nd birthday here at SCRAP-FRIENDZY!!!

Here is the scoop on our Birthday Bash:

-Our Hop will last for 10 Days!! {October 1st-10th}

-Each evening, you will check in on our SF BLOG. You will find a link to 'hop' to that day's blog!

-All you have to do is leave a comment on each blog that you hop to! Every time you leave a comment you will be put in a drawing to win a scrappy prize!

-Also... each blog you hop to will offer a challenge to you. Each challenge will have a Friendz Pointz value. Complete the challenge, upload your project into the SF gallery and link it in the appropriate thread in the forum to earn your FPZ! (The girlfriend that earns the most FPZ in October will win a prize package AND be featured as our Girlfriend Of The Month!!)

Just starting out? No problem! You have until Oct. 31st to get the challenges in for FPZ.

If you have any questions concerning our Blog Hop, feel free email me here!

Every party needs a banner so why not create one to perfectly match your color scheme & decor?

I chose to create a super fun hot pink, black, and zebra print "PARTY" banner. I started with a Maya Road chipboard banner book and added lots of fun papers, glitter letters, flowers, and bling. I tied them all together with tulle and added a little zebra print ribbon.

I challenge you to create your own party banner (could also be a holiday banner if you'd prefer). Any colors, any theme, any supplies! There are a few teeny, tiny rules though. You must have at least 5 pieces (They may be any shape you want.) and they must be strung together. Don't have a Maya Road banner book lying around? LOL! Don't worry--cut your pieces from scraps of cardboard, poster board, even an old cereal box.

Once you create your banner, load it in the SF gallery for 50 Pointz! I can't wait to see what you create!

Be sure to leave a comment here to get your name in the drawing!

Have a great time creating & don't forget to go to the SF blog again tomorrow to see what blog you need to hop to!

Just another insane day around here!

2009-07-08T16:10:00.003-05:00

I can certainly never call my life "dull"! LOL!

7:30 am--Addyson wakes up. I run to the bathroom and Jason gets her out of her cradle. I come out of the bathroom to see Jason scrambling around for something on my side of the bed while Addyson is screaming her head off! He had "tried" to change her diaper without putting anything under her and she peed EVERYWHERE! On MY side of the bed! So at the crack of dawn I was stripping the sheets off of the bed and trying to figure out how to clean the memory foam pad we have on there! Fun was to start the morning huh?

8:00 am--Jason wakes up Drew because we were going to the library this morning. He tries to give her cereal and she has a meltdown. Apparently she is used to eating dry cereal out of a bag in the car on the way to the library (because we are always running late!) and thought that she wasn't getting to go since he was trying to feed her! LOL!

8:30 am--My blow dryer will not come on at all! It does NOTHING! I freak out (because my hair was wet & there was no way I was going to town looking like that but who was going to break that news to Drew? LOL!)

8:30-9:00 am--Jason performs surgery on my blow dryer. Drew runs in to tell me that "daddy fissed it!" He comes in and says "It works but I have to hold it for you". I assumed that there was a short in the cord and he had to hold it to keep it on. WRONG! He had CUT OFF the plug part and was standing there holding 2 wires in the outlet! OMG! I freaked out and told him that he was going to electrocute himself to which he told me to "Shut up and blow your hair dry! You know nothing about electricity!" I may not but I'm fairly certain you are not supposed to hold 2 wires in an outlet! LOL!

10:00 am-- By some miracle of God we made it to town (20 minutes away) for story time with a few minutes to spare even!

11:30 am-- Go into Wal-Mart to buy wipes and a new blow dryer.

12:15 pm-- Come out of Wal-Mart with $150 worth of stuff in 3 small bags and a SCREAMING baby. It was the mad baby goat sound again! LOL! And Drew was limping around hollering, "I can't walk fast! I have a broke weg!" There is nothing at all wrong with her leg! Nothing! LOL!

12:20-12:40 pm-- Sit in Whataburger drive-thru listening to one kid scream and the other singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" at the top of her lungs in an attempt to quiet the screaming one.

12:50 pm-- Halfway home & I realized that I did not buy a dang blow dryer!

1:00 pm-- Wake up girls to get them out of the car. Both took offense to that! LOL!

1:00-2:00 pm-- Feed Addyson & fight with Drew about eating her burger who kept telling me to "wait a little minute!"

2:00 pm-- Finally got to eat a very cold cheeseburger!

LOL!

B

Happy 4th of July!

2009-07-04T13:42:00.004-05:00

These 2 cuties would like to wish everyone a safe & happy holiday weekend!

There is a reason...

2009-06-24T23:14:00.002-05:00

why I don't leave the house on my own with the 2 tiny ones! Today's events illustrate that point perfectly!

Grab a snack! It's gonna be a long one! LOL!

Let's see....Addyson puked twice before we even got into the car. That made her extra happy & she was sure to let us, and everyone in the surrounding counties, know.

We got to CVS where I wrestled with Drew, who was wearing a monkey back pack with a tail for me to hold onto. She wanted to "charge" around and pull me! She was happy when I swatted her! LOL! Back by the pharmacy an old lady proceeded to chastise me for allowing my child to have a pacifier, giving me an ear full of why it was terrible of me! I had to walk away before I accidentally told her what I thought of her advice! (Apparently me & Danielle are attracting the "crazies" these days! LOL!) We finally got to the register where the ever-so-smart cashier rang us up not once, not twice, but 3 times! I have NO clue what the heck she did each time but I had to pack & unpack my basket each time! The entire time she was doing that Addyson was screaming. Not a small whimpering cry, but the sound a baby goat makes when it gets stepped on--you know? That hysterical tiny baby cry? It was great! And to make it even better there was a line of, I kid you not, at least 10 people behind us because why would a store around here actually use the multiple registers they have?!? And all of those 10 people wanted to offer suggestions of what might be wrong with her (while looking at me like I had done something to cause the hold up!) and I heard more than once, "She's not happy!" No shit Sherlock! You think? LOL! I was finally able to pay and get out of there!

We proceed the mile down the road to Wal-Mart (had we not been seriously out of food I would have said "forget it" and come home at that point!) with Drew hollering from the back seat "Her's sad! Her has tears!" UGH!!!! At 6 pm we walked into Wal-Mart. (That fact will be important later!) I had a list & I had my coupons. I planned to follow my list and get out of there quickly--Ha! Ha! Ha! My "monkey girl" was once again pulling me along with her tail or darting in front of the basket and stopping. I don't know how many times I ran over her cause you know my short self can certainly not see over the car seat perched on the buggy! I think we managed to get eggs & milk in the basket before Addyson once again decided that she was angry with the world. I gave her a juice bottle & she quickly fell asleep. I spent the next 2.5 hours (Yes! It was 8:30 before we got in a check out line!) chasing Drew, yanking Drew's tail, running over Drew with the basket while the tiny one screamed (because it was really just a tiny cat nap and what stupid mama would leave the house with only one bottle which was now empty?) Nearly every person we passed commented on how cute Drew was with her monkey tail and how beautiful her smile was, and of course told me "She's not happy!" in reference to Addyson! And again my response is "No shit Sherlock!"

So in conclusion, if anyone wants to know why I don't run the roads everyday, just read this! Or better yet, come get Drew & Addyson and take them to Wal-Mart!

6 Week Check-up

2009-06-08T20:20:00.005-05:00

Addyson's 1 month check-up was rescheduled due to her doctor being hospitalized. At 6 weeks she now weighs 8 pounds, 8 ounces and was 22 inches long! She has grown 1.5 inches! I guess she's going to be tall and skinny! They also confirmed that she has a small hernia. It's right above her belly button and only appears when she's throwing a fit. It's not a problem right now and unless it fixes itself, she'll have surgery when she's 2 or 3. So for right now she'll have 2 belly buttons! LOL! See her little hernia?
They decided to keep her on the soy formula and give her some medicine to help her go to the bathroom easier--hate hearing her scream! And we are also adding a bit of rice cereal to each bottle to thicken it up. That's helping a great deal with the spitting up plus it's making her feel full which makes her happier. Maybe it'll put a little meat on her skinny bones so she can wear something besides Preemie clothes soon!

I've finally gotten my scrappy mojo back! Yay! Here are 2 pages I did this weekend.

Check these out!

2009-05-29T15:40:00.002-05:00

I don't have time to scrap these days so I've given Dena & Leslie pics to work on! Check out these awesome pages they've done of Miss Addyson!

Here's Leslie's post on her blog.

http://leslieashe.blogspot.com/2009/05/time-to-blog-hop.html

And here's Dena's.

http://onmydesksomewhere.blogspot.com/2009/05/pssst-while-im-waiting.html

I'm so lucky to have such wonderful scrappy friends!

B

More Photos

2009-05-19T13:48:00.004-05:00

We're getting into a routine now--sort of! LOL! Miss Addyson screams from about 10 pm to somewhere around 1 am! LOL! That's the only constant we have right now.

Here are some more photos of my sweet girl.

I finally got to scrapbook a little bit too! Haven't done that in well over a month! Nevermind the fact that this super simple page took me all day to complete! LOL! But it has the 2 cutest girls I've ever seen on it!

It's been 3 weeks

2009-05-13T14:34:00.013-05:00

since I became the mother of 2 and let me be the first to tell you--I do not have the foggiest idea what I am doing! LOL! Seriously! Those of you with more than 2 or multiples must be super women!

My c-section was scheduled for 7:30 am on April 22 so we had to be at the hospital at 5:30. If you know me at all, you know that there are very few things I will do at 5:30 am! LOL! We got to the hospital and they immediately hooked me up to everything known to man, poked holes in my hand, and made me drink the nastiest stuff ever. Jason took quite a few photos of me at this time but this is the only one that I'll dare to show! Just remember that it's 5:30 in the morning!

I went into this c-section pretty scared. I started regaining some feeling towards the end of my c-section with Drew so I was nervous about the same thing happening again. Not entirely sure what went wrong this time but I felt EVERYTHING after the first cut! I kid you not! There was a lot of hollering (mostly from me I'm sure!) and the doctors & nurses were giving me as much stuff as they could to make it stop. The actual delivery part was pretty rough. Apparently she was a bit stuck in there so there was a lot of pushing and pulling and they ended up having to use the vacuum on her. She has a nice little bubble on her head as a result.

Before we went in they told us that we could not take any photos of anything on the other side of the drape so we don't have the super cool (but oh so gory) photos that Jason got of Drew's birth. Throw in the craziness going on in the OR at that time and we only got a couple of photos.

Because my stomach was so much larger this time I assumed that she would be much bigger than Drew was. Addyson Mikayla was born at 7:36 am and weighed 7 lbs 6.2 oz.--nearly a pound smaller than her big sister. She was the same length--20.5 in.

Here she is with Daddy on their way to the nursery just a few minutes after she was born.

They gave me a lot of morphine and used some gas to knock me out so I don't remember much after she was born until I woke up in the recovery room. It seemed like hours before I was settled in my room and they brought Addyson in. This was the first time I got to hold her.

Sean & Brandi kept Drew for us the night before Addyson's birth and brought her to the hospital to meet her new little sister that afternoon. We had been talking about how cool it was going to be to be a big sister so she was very excited about her new job! She had on her cute "Big Sister" t-shirt that I had made for her.

This photo is TERRIBLE of me but look how much my big girl looks like me here!

The day we found out that we were having a girl we stopped at the Harley shop and Jason picked out this outfit to bring her home in. It's a bit too big but still oh so cute!

Even though the actual c-section didn't go as it should have, my recovery has been so much easier this time around. My parents came here to help out for 2 weeks (because that's how much help I needed when I had Drew & we were expecting the same recovery this time) but I've been able to do pretty much everything since day 1. They were a huge help with Drew though allowing me to rest throughout the day.

I'll share some of the many photos I've taken since we've been home soon but here's one more of me & my 2 sweetie girls. As frustrating as everyday has been and despite being more tired than I've ever been in my entire life, I love these 2 little miracles more than I ever thought possible!

Baby No Name has a name!

2009-04-05T21:15:00.002-05:00

As cool and unique as "Baby No Name" is we finally settled on a name! From now on she shall be known as "Addyson Mikayla Pitts"!

No progress!

2009-03-25T19:00:00.003-05:00

That was the verdict at today's doctor's appointment! Granted I'm only 35 weeks (measuring 37) and we don't really need progress at this point but I thought for sure all these contractions I've been having had done something! But no! Not a thing! I go back in 2 weeks but for now we're still on for a c-section on April 22 (apparently before even the chickens get up as I'll need to be at the hospital at 5:30 AM!). That's freakishly early but at least we'll be able to get it over with early in the day and it won't be 5 or 6 pm before I can eat! LOL! I guess now I can quit worrying that she's gonna just "fall out" as it has certainly felt like the past week. I gained 5 pounds this time bringing me to a grand total of 23 pounds. I'm fairly certain that all 23 pounds are in my stomach because even my biggest maternity shirts no longer fit and the "kangaroo pouch" pants are too tight around the middle! I refuse to buy any new ones this late in the game though! I'll just wear Jason's t-shirts & pj pants! LOL!

We had a little time to kill before heading to the doctor so we ran in (well I waddled in! LOL!) Hobby Lobby. They had tons of stuff on 50% off this week but I had to be good and just picked up some page protectors & some envelopes for the baby announcements I hope to get pre-assembled. Jason wanted to look at some of the home decor stuff that was on sale and we got a super cool, large wrought iron cross for the wall in the entry way. It didn't have a price tag on it (though some of the others that were similar were $39) and when we got up to the register with it the girl decided that it should be $20 so we paid $10 since it was on sale this week! Such a great deal!

The Nursery--so far

2009-03-05T23:49:00.004-06:00

We got the furniture all set up last night! I love the pieces we picked out! I think they look really great with the white shutters that were already in the room. Today I go the bedding put on the bed and a few things set out. I am so happy I found this bedding! Love love love the bright colors (not a fan of pastel baby themed stuff and I wanted something that would really pop against the white furniture). I still need to get a pad for the changing table/dresser and put some stuff up on the walls but we're definitely making progress! Drew picked out the giraffe in the rocking chair. She has one similar. It plays music & she sleeps with it every night. She said that the baby needed one too. (Well she actually picked it up in the store and said "For baby!" so we bought it.)

We also converted Drew's bed to the full size "big girl bed" last night so I'll share photos of it soon. She LOVES it! But she looks so tiny sleeping in it!

April 22!

2009-03-04T18:08:00.003-06:00

That's the day we'll get to meet "Baby No Name"! Not entirely sure of the time of day yet although they did say something about 5:30 am. LOL! They have apparently never met me--there's not much I will do at 5:30 am! LOL! It will be sometime before noon. We should know for sure when we go back on the 25th.

My glucose test came back OK but it seems that I am anemic so I have to start taking some extra iron pills to build my blood count back up before delivery. That would explain why I feel really weak and shaky sometimes. My stomach measured at 33 weeks (I'm 31 weeks 5 days technically so that's too far off.) but I have not gained any weight this time. I weighed the same as I did 3 weeks ago.

Since getting home this evening, Jason has put together Drew's "big girl bed" but she won't get in it because he's in the nursery assembling the baby's crib and she MUST be in the middle of the action! Mom is here and she's going to help me decorate the nursery tomorrow so I should have some photos to share in the next couple of days. I've washed all of the baby clothes I saved from Drew so all we really need to have a baby is a name! I have picked out one--Jason has not warmed up to it yet but according to him he "doesn't hate it anymore". I'm still working on him! LOL!

I'll try to be sure to get some pics to share soon!

30 Weeks

2009-02-20T21:05:00.003-06:00

Can't believe I'm at 30 weeks already! Not too much longer now!

I had a doctor's appointment last week. Did my glucose test and it turned out fine (I guess--they didn't call to say otherwise.) Everything checked out fine. I've gained a total of 18 pounds so far which is not bad considering I gained 39 with Drew. My hands and feet are still their usual size--they were both incredibly swollen last time. This time it seems that all of my weight is in my stomach (obviously I know it's not since there's not an 18 pound baby in there) and I don't look like the Pillsbury Dough Boy! It's looking like April 22 will be c-section day. We'll finalize that when we go back in a couple of weeks. I've been having lots of fake contractions but nothing to be concerned about though they are not very comfortable and I'm glad I don't have to have real labor.

We still do not have a name picked out so I refer to her as "Baby No Name". When I say "we" I mean Jason has yet to agree to the name I have chosen! LOL! I guess at least I'm not having the "Drew" fight. Apparently multiple people "thought" that if the baby was a boy we'd be naming it Drew. Ummmm....yeah. We already have a Drew!

We have ordered the furniture for the nursery and the bedding has arrived. The guest room has been moved to upstairs so we now have an empty room down here for the baby. My mother & I went through all of the clothes and stuff I saved from Drew. I have tons of tiny stuff to wash and get ready now. I think pretty much all I'm going to need to get is new bibs, burp cloths, & receiving/light weight blankets. Well and bottles because I've somehow misplaced about 30 of them! LOL! I found all the nipples but none of the bottles? Why they weren't all together I don't know!

I took a few belly shots yesterday (don't have any stretch marks yet though my veins are sure showing up--guess my skin is stretched pretty thin! LOL!) and then someone posed herself and wanted her pictures made too! LOL!

She is so silly! And oh so trying these days. She's developed a temper and doesn't like to be told "No!". She's also very good at fit throwing-complete with kicking, screaming, and flinging around! LOL! She's also VERY SMART! She can count to 10 (when she wants to). She can sing the ABC song (though there seems to be lots of Es, Ts, and other letters with that sound in it! LOL!) She can identify all the capital letters (W seems to be her favorite). She was telling me the aisle numbers correctly in Wal-Mart yesterday so she apparently knows most of her numbers too. She also can identify circles, oval, squares, diamonds, rectangles, triangles, stars, & hearts. She often thinks that she is a dog and will try to lick you if you're not paying attention to her. She seems very excited about the baby on most days. One day though she brought several blankets and put them over my belly, declaring, "Don't wanna see baby!" LOL! I think she will be a great big sister because most days she hugs my belly and says "I lub oooo Mama! I lub ooooo Baby Sisser!"

It's a.....

2008-12-18T17:37:00.006-06:00

And she's absolutely PERFECT!

Her heartbeat was nice and strong. She weighs about 13 ounces which they said was right on track and she was kicking up a storm! I've been feeling kicks (started the night of the "Wasp Attack"! LOL!) but they've been light and not very steady. Nothing like the crazy maniac kicking her big sister had going on in there! Perhaps that means that this will be my calm one? The one that likes to sit on the couch and quietly read? Hey! I can dream!

Here's a shot of her skinny little leg.

And her perfect little face! Look at that cute nose!

Here she is with her hand up by her face.

We are both more than happy! Drew, however, is in denial or something cause she keeps saying, "No! A brudder!" when I tell her that she's having a sister! LOL! We haven't settled on a name yet but I'll let y'all know when we do.

Revenge of the Wasps!

2008-12-07T00:52:00.001-06:00

I'm sure y'all have seen me mention the wasps that come in through our fireplace from time to time. They always seem to "attack" when Jason's not home and I'm TERRIFIED of them! (Of course if our chimney had some sort of screening over/around it then this wouldn't be such an issue I'm sure.)

Anyhow...tonight Jason decides to light a fire in there--the first one of the year! It was going fine and him & Drew were sitting in there watching it burn when he yelled for me to bring the fly swatter. I run in there with it and he points to the rock ledge in front of the fire place where one lone wasp was hobbling along. I went to swat it when all of the sudden it was like you see in old horror films where bats fly out of a cave--100's (and I am not exaggerating at all!) of wasps came flying out! The ceilings in that room are 22 feet high and it's open to the upstairs on either side of it. I was screaming and hopping around! Jason was running around swatting and yelling at me to get some spray. Drew was screaming and running around. I ran to the kitchen and got the spray and Jason starts aiming it towards the fireplace (where they are still pouring out of!). I started yelling at him that he "can't spray that in the house and definitely not into the fire!" but really what choice did we have.

I grabbed up Drew and ran her down the hall to her room and shut the door. She was screaming and crying but unharmed/unstung and it was safest for her to be closed up in there. I ran back in there and grabbed the other can of spray and started aiming! We sprayed until we ran out and then continued running and swatting! By that time the combination of running up & down the stairs and all around the house shutting doors (to contain them to the center/open rooms) and the hideous fumes put off I couldn't breathe, I was gagging and coughing, and my throat was on fire! I threw open the front door and ran out on the porch gagging and making all kinds of racket! (Good thing we live way out here by ourselves!) Once I got that all under control I ran back down the hall to Drew's room (yes! For some reason I insisted on running the whole time! LOL!) to check on her. The poor thing was sitting in the middle of her bed just quietly crying. I went over to her and she just kept saying "Daddy kill bug! Daddy kill it!" I calmed her down a little and ran back to the living room. Jason was still running and swatting. The ceiling (22 feet in the air) was dotted with wasps and more were flying around up there. A lot of the ones near the floor were hobbling around so I was able to kill a lot of them with a shoe.

After about 45 minutes of constant killing we thought we had gotten them all (we've since found a few but they were near death already) except one that was on the rock of the fireplace up near the ceiling. Jason started shooting at it with my BB gun (shoots plastic pellets) but was missing terribly and basically just bouncing little blue balls all over the house! LOL! Then he wadded up a dish towel and started tossing it towards it to get it to move. This went on FOREVER as he throws about as well as he shoots! LOL! He finally lured it down by throwing Drew's soccer ball at it (a soft small one)! Surprisingly nothing was broken in all this!

When we got all of them killed Jason went in to check on Drew and she was asleep! LOL! We've since woken her up and checked her all over and she's fine. I however spent about 20 minutes puking in the bathroom! I somehow made it 19 weeks without barfing, inhale a bit of wasp spray, and lose it all! I kept asking Jason if I would be OK and saying that I didn't want the baby to come out with wings and a stinger! LOL! I think I'm fine now--other than the fact that I'm sure I'll never be able to sleep! I'm not a fan of bugs and having 100s of them flying out at me all at one time just pretty much sends me over the edge! LOL!

Apparently every kind of wasp known to East Texas was in there! We killed huge red ones, black ones, little red ones with yellow stripes, black with yellow stripes, and the ones that look like their 2 body parts are connected with just a string!

While I don't suggest spraying wasp spray directly into a fire, it did not cause the giant fire ball one would expect from the warnings on the can! LOL! Neither of us were very impressed with the show! LOL! And you can believe that I will be paying ANY PRICE to get someone to climb up on the roof/chimney to put some sort of screening over it! (When we built this house we were turned down by 2 of the roofing companies here because of the steepness of it and then the chimney sticks up WAY above the highest peak! And the meth addict that built the fireplace & bricked everything apparently didn't find a screen necessary! UGH!)

A Super Cute Bumble Bee and A Pregnant Witch

2008-10-31T15:19:00.003-05:00

Bet you've waited all you life to see a pregnant witch huh? LOL!

Last Saturday we went to Alex's birthday party which had a costume theme. The witch dress was the only thing I saw that would accomadate my ever growing belly! Drew also wore her bumble bee suit on Sunday when we went to the hayride/fall festival at the church. Here she's flapping her arms and saying "Buzz! Buzz!" She is so silly!

Tonight we are going Trick or Treating in town and she'll be wearing the cutest poodle skirt outfit!

Pregnancy Update

2008-10-22T18:00:00.003-05:00

Today I had my doctor's appointment. Everything went great--I'm still pregnant! (In case y'all just thought I was fat!) LOL! He said that the heartbeat was nice and strong (and still only one in there) and "in the girl range" (I know it's not an exact science and he said that too but he also said that in all the years he's been doing this it's usually right on.) We will of course be happy with girl or boy and will find out for sure in December. The prospect of us having another girl is less than thrilling to some people but Jason & I know that this baby is a miracle that we were not sure we'd have and are totally excited with whatever comes our way. As he was poking and prodding on my belly to find the heartbeat I felt distinct movement in there. I've been feeling little pokes every now and then but since it's early no one believes me! LOL! I KNOW I felt it today. Wouldn't you kick and squirm if someone was smooshing down on you? He also said that my uterus measures a bit larger than 12 weeks (I guess that's what he was feeling for while squashing my stomach down?). When we went in the first time I told them 2 different dates (about 4 weeks apart) and it's totally possible that I'm actually 16 weeks instead of 12 (not as likely but still a possibility) but he said we'd check it out more next time. I gained a bit more weight than I thought but he said that it's right on target for 2nd pregnancies. I'm sure it's got something to do with the peanut butter sandwiches I eat at 3 am every night!

12 Weeks!

2008-10-19T01:02:00.003-05:00

I've officially passed the 12 week mark! I have been a bit more nervous this time around. I guess I didn't know enough to be nervous when I was pregnant with Drew or maybe it's the fact that this time happened so easily compared to before. Other than the constant gagging (which was just teasing me with the off week! LOL!) I've been perfectly fine. No complications of any sort which is great! I have a doctor's appointment Wednesday so it'll be interesting to see how much weight my nightly peanut butter sandwich has caused me to gain. My scale shows less than a pound so far. I had Jason take a few pics of me today (Please ignore my freakishly long shirt! I didn't realize it was THAT long until I got all dressed and by then Jason was already getting in the car! LOL! Maybe it'll shrink in the wash like everything else.) and Drew wanted hers taken too!

"Think Pink" Kit

2008-10-17T00:25:00.006-05:00

In honor of breast cancer awareness, Scrap-Frendzy is offering a special "Think Pink" kit.

All proceeds from the sale of these kits go to the Susan G. Komen Foundation!

Kit Contents:

Patterned Paper

2- Glitz Design "Hot Mama Silhouette"
2- Glitz Design "Gigi Pink Zebra"
2- Glitz Design "Hot Mama Damask"
1- Paper Studio "Black & White Floral"
1- Paper Studio "Pink & White Polka Dot"
1- Paper Studio "Zebra print"

Cardstock

1- Textured Medium Pink
1- Smoothies Hot Pink

Embellishments

1- Scrap-Friendzy Hand-made "Divalicious" Flower
2- 3" White Doillies
4- Punched "Glitter-flies"
1- Swirl Stamped Journal Spot
12"- Black Ric-Rac
12"- Pink Pom-Pom Trim
12"- Silver Sequin Strip
4- Hot Pink Buttons
4- Rhinestones

Extras

Glitz Design Glitter Cardstock Stickers- Pink
Glitz Design Lrg. Roller Doodles- Flourish

You get all of that for just $25.00 + $6.00 shipping. Go to http://www.scrap-friendzy.com/ to order yours today!

Here's a few things I created with mine.

I am returning

2008-10-14T13:23:00.003-05:00

to the Simply Obsessed Design Team for another term! I am so excited! I just love it there.

I am excited to say that Michelle & Brandy will be returning with me! (Brandy & I are quite the team! Perhaps a little dangerous at times but I think that just goes with the name! LOL!)

And these new faces as well:

Ronda Simpson (Ronda)
Suzanne Wikstrom (twinsand2boys)
Abbie Torroll (AbbieT)
Jennifer French (JenniferF)
Trish Harwick (TLHarwick)

I'm sad that the current term is over. I really became friends with everyone on the team and hope that we will all stay in touch! (You hear that girls? No disappearing on me!) I know that this new team will also do an excellent job and I'll gain even more friends!

A few pages

2008-10-14T00:48:00.006-05:00

As many of you know my scrappy mojo has been missing for a while now--11 weeks and 4 days to be exact! LOL! You know it's bad when I don't even want to scrap! LOL! Here are a few pages that I've forced out recently.

These three were done with the beautiful October kit from Simply Obsessed. I even used an owl!

Here's my Random Chaos page for this week. The challenge is to use polka dots, flowers, & buttons. The tab pulls my journaling out from behind the photo.

And a few others.

Those last 2 are the same photos but one is for Drew's album and the other is for my pregnancy album.

10 Weeks!

2008-10-04T23:57:00.006-05:00

I am officially 10 weeks & 2 days pregnant! Jason took these photos of me a few days ago.

Now I am completely aware that my baby is only about the size of a grape and that for all practical purposes I should not be showing yet but....I did not look like this 10 weeks ago so I can only assume that it is pregnancy related! LOL!

The all day sickness has gotten so much better! This past week I was only a little bit sick at night or after I had eaten too much. I am so hoping that it stays away!

We got back from our trip to Arkansas this evening. I'll try to post some photos from that soon.

***ETA: There is for sure only one baby in there. There was only one heartbeat and I had a very thorough sonogram (pics are several posts below). The only place another baby could have hidden during that sonogram would have been in my throat! LOL! I popped out really fast with Drew too and was wearing only maternity clothes by 8 weeks with her. I am very short and the doctor says there is no where for anything to go but "out".***

The best thing about showing early is that people don't have to stare at you trying to figure out if you're pregnant or just fat! LOL!

I've been tagged (again and again and again)

2008-09-27T01:00:00.004-05:00

I have been tagged by many of my online buddies over the past few months. I am TERRIBLE about updating my blog and even more TERRIBLE about fulfilling my tags. If you have tagged me or given me an award in the past, I truly do thank you for thinking of me. I don't mean to ignore you I'm just bad about following through.

Leslie tagged me a few days ago with the following quiz. I figured it would make a better blog entry than me whining about morning (excuse me...all day) sickness and the fact that I can't get comfortable enough at night to sleep. I figured it would be more interesting than me ranting about the chat I plan to have with Eve or whomever screwed up the "miracle of birth" thing when I get to Heaven because really they deserve quite the lecture on this one! Really? An apple? It wasn't like the snake offered you chocolate! Anyhow...

The FIVE Tag:

10 years ago I:

1. was 21
2. was a senior in college (for the first time!) and on my 5th or 6th major
3. was driving my first Trans-Am--a blue convertible
4. had already been married for nearly 3 years
5. had no idea how hard the years ahead would be

5 things on today's "to do" list:

1. laundry
2. pack for our trip
3. sort through maternity clothes (They are currently in my living room floor!)
4. scrap
5. make it through the day without gagging (I did it today! 2 days in a row would be awesome!)

5 snacks I enjoy:

1. Cinnamon Sugar Donuts
2. Lays Regular Potato Chips w/French Onion Dip
3. M & Ms
4. Crackers with Squeeze Cheese (You know--the cool stuff that squirts out of a can?)
5. Coca-Cola (This isn't so much a snack as it is a necessity for the the safety of others! LOL!)

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire:

1. Hire a maid
2. Hire a chef
3. Hire someone to do Jason's job
4. Have the inground pool of my dreams built
5. Hire a professional organizer to fix my house

5 places I have lived:

1. Houston, TX
2. Centerville, TX
3. Buffalo, TX
4. Longview, TX
5. Carthage/Gary/Tenaha, TX (It's really all the same place! LOL!)

5 jobs I have had:

1. Texas Burger
2. Financial Aid Office at LeTourneau University
3. Pitts Hardware (office)
4. Carthage Twin Cinema
5. Stanley School (3rd, 4th, 5th, & 6th grade teacher)

And because I have issues with following the rules, I am not tagging anyone! LOL!

Drew has a secret....

2008-09-20T00:05:00.002-05:00

And she is pretty excited about it!

We will be welcoming a new little member to our family around the end of April. The 'official' due date is May 1st but because it will be a repeat c-section it will be the week before unless he/she has their own plans! LOL! So far everything is going well. I will be glad when I get out of the constant gagging stage and into the constant eating one! LOL! Drew says 'Hi baby!' to my belly which I thought was adorable but then she also says it to Jason's belly! LOL!

And because I can't post photos of one child without posting some of the other...I introduce our newest miracle.

Backporch Memories September Kit

2008-09-18T00:37:00.012-05:00

I had the pleasure of working with the Medley kit form BPM this month.

Here are 3 pages and a card that I created with it.

Hot Springs

2008-09-18T00:37:00.006-05:00

A few weekends ago we took the travel trailer up to Hot Springs, Arkansas.

We went to the Science Museum and saw a really cool exhibit on the Human Body. Everything in it (bones, organs, etc.) was real. They even had full bodies standing up--very cool but still a little creepy. Drew enjoyed playing with the displays (in the museum not the bodies! LOL!) and we took a little walk on the nature trail. Drew liked the oversized "Operation" game and kept saying "toast" when she was using the tongs. I guess because our toaster keeps "eating" things I have to fish it out with the tongs! LOL!

We also rode around up the mountain and stopped to take some photos.

We had fun but came home a day early to avoid any delays because of Hurricane Gustav. Hot Springs was filling up with evacuees and the stores and gas stations were getting crazy. Before leaving Hot Springs we stocked up on bottled water, juice, snacks, and 4 full diesel cans. To my disappointment (crazy I know!) we didn't need any of those things! There was no traffic, no lines at gas stations, and we didn't even lose power. In fact the 20" of predicted rain was really only about 3"! And that was spread out over several days!

Catching Up!

2008-08-17T23:57:00.006-05:00

As usual, I've made a million pages but have posted none! Aren't you glad you didn't hold your breath? (See last post if you have no clue what I'm rambling about! LOL!)

Here are my most recent creations! Click on the pictures to see them closer.

I made this page for the Guest Design Team contest at Backporch Memories and I'm happy to say that I won a spot for this month!

This page was made for my challenge at the SO crop last weekend. My challenge was based on the icecream flavor, Vanilla, so you had to create an all white page.

Last week's Random Chaos page...Nothing patterned.

Another one from the SO crop using Michelle's "Rainbow Sherbet" challenge.

A Random Chaos page--Red, blue, & yellow color scheme + buttons

These next 3 were made with the Simply Obsessed August kit. I just loved it and I am so in love with flocking now! If you haven't flocked, you must try it!

I created this page for the SO newsletter using a sketch by Sarah.

I entered this page into the sketch contest at Busy Bee Scrapbooking and WON! It also got LOTD at Create My Keepsake! (Notice I took that pic off the top of my blog so y'all don't have to look at my big butt in a swim suit anymore! You're welcome!)

During the crop at SO we took a quiz to find out what flavor of icecream we are. (I was Butter Pecan and Strawberry.) We had to then create a page using those flavors as some sort of inspiration. I took the easy road and used the colors for this page. Drew was only 6 days old here when Des & Debra came to see her.

I made this page for Kathy's circle journal. Her topic was "If I knew then" and I chose to go with the fact that I'm glad I didn't know. Click on the picture if you want to read the journaling but I won't be responsible for any running mascara!

If you are still here and have not run screaming from all the pages, thanks for checking out my blog and have a great week!

October Afternoon--Hometown

2008-08-15T15:06:00.005-05:00

This is the September kit for Simply Obsessed! Doesn't it look wonderful? All BRAND NEW stuff! Love the October Afternoon stuff paired with Jenni Bowlin. And check out the amazing Etsy finds in there! A winner for sure! Lots of great add-ons this month too! They're going fast!

http://www.simplyobsessed.com/index.php/kit/id/188

http://www.simplyobsessed.com/index.php/addon

There are still a few birthday kits left and they are shipping now! Look how fun they are!

Pick one up here.

http://www.simplyobsessed.com/index.php/kit/id/188

You won't be disappointed!

I'll be back later to share some recent layouts! (Yeah! I know! 2 posts in one day from me? I wouldn't hold my breath either! LOL!)

Don't Forget!

2008-08-08T01:51:00.002-05:00

The birthday crop at Simply Obsessed starts TODAY at 4 pm (EST) and goes through Sunday. There are lots of cool challenges and prizes so I hope to see you there! Be sure to check out the awesome birthday kit too! Super bright and fun papers and embellishments in that one!

Drew's 2!

2008-08-05T17:10:00.006-05:00

Yes! I'm aware it has been almost a month since her birthday! LOL! Her party went great! This year she actually got into the whole presents and blowing out the candles thing! Still not a fan of cake! LOL! She wouldn't touch it! The cupcakes ARE NOT the pretty pastel colors I ordered but what can you do an hour before the party? Aren't they hideous though? LOL!

My little messenger

2008-07-20T21:30:00.003-05:00

is not very cooperative today!

But she did have on some fancy shoes! :)

Busy August 8-10?

2008-07-17T23:42:00.002-05:00

If not, come crop with us at Simply Obsessed! It starts at 4 pm (EST) on Friday. There will be lots of fun contests, challenges, and prizes AND if you head over there and pick up the blinkie you can get a free goodie bag just for posting it! How cool is that?

Check it out!

www.simplyobsessed.com

Drew has a little message!

2008-07-15T21:20:00.001-05:00

A few pages

2008-07-15T18:11:00.004-05:00

Here are some of the things I got done this weekend.

"Oh the Places you'll Go" is a total lift of one of Davinie's pages. I just loved hers so I had to copy it!

"Time with Nana" is this week's Random Chaos page. The challenge is to use a 3 word title, 1 photo, chipboard letters, & flowers. We'd love to have you play along!

Drew turned 2 this past Sunday! I cannot believe how fast those 2 years went! I seriously thought everyone was just being over dramatic when they said the years would fly by! They were totally right! And I swear she became a complete chatterbox while I was gone. I woke up Monday morning to her hollering through the monitor, "Daddy! My diaper is dirty!" Those exact words! A complete sentence! And of course Daddy wasn't here to change that dirty diaper! LOL!

Since I was gone the weekend of her birthday, we decided to do her party this coming weekend instead. Here are the invitations I made and sent out.

17 Pages!

2008-07-14T23:52:00.002-05:00

That's how many I did! Diana guessed right on! Congrats! Email me with your addy!

13 layouts and 27 ATCs (6 cards=1 page). I still need to journal on them before I post photos but I am totally amazed at what all I got done! I had a wonderful time and I'll try to post pics and more info tomorrow!

A Scrappy RAK

2008-07-11T01:48:00.002-05:00

I'm leaving tomorrow for a scrappy retreat. I'll be gone through Sunday (a bit nervous as this is the first time I've left Drew overnight though I'm sure her Daddy will take good care of her!). I'm really excited (but not at all packed! LOL!) . I can't wait to see Amanda. If we had discovered scrapping back in high school, we might have been dangerous! LOL!

Post here with how many pages you think I will make over the next 3 days and I'll send the closest person a fabulous RAK. (I'll also be making some ATCs and I'll say that 6 cards=1 page.)

I'll be back Monday with a total and a winner! (And a few pics from my weekend!)

Simply Obsessed July Kit

2008-07-08T02:18:00.003-05:00

I was honestly a little bit scared of this kit when I first saw it. I'm not normally a big fan of Cherry Art and it was very boy oriented. I am pleasantly surprised at my outcome. I think I came up with some pretty good layouts and I have a lot of paper left over. The altered "B" is my newsletter challenge for this month.

Happy Birthday Paper Trunk!

2008-07-01T12:58:00.002-05:00

Paper Trunk is having a fabulous birthday celebration! Complete with lots of wonderful prizes and challenges! I just love challenges and hope that I'll have time to participate in some of them! The ones already posted look awesome and Dena has something up her sneaky little sleeve today too! Take a peek at their blog if you haven't already and join in the fun!

http://www.papertrunk.blogspot.com/

12 Years Ago

2008-06-30T00:27:00.006-05:00

we got married! I can't believe it has already been that long. I am a very lucky girl (and Jason's pretty lucky too if I do say so myself! LOL!). Sandra (MIL) came and stayed with Drew while we went on a date! The first date we've had (without Drew) since Drew was born! That's a very long time! We had such a good time. We went to the movies and saw "Made of Honor" which I thought was very cute and then picked up a few things at Best Buy (romantic huh? LOL!)

When I look at the 2 of us, I always think that we look just the same as we did when we got married. Check out these pics though--I was so very wrong! We totally looked like babies!

And this one is from today.

I also got this super cute shot of Drew & her Nana today! Drew had such a great time and all I've heard since I got home is "Nana! Nana! Nana!". Thanks so much, Sandra, for watching her and I've already printed out a copy of this photo for you!

Because I'm a little bit scared...

2008-06-26T00:07:00.008-05:00

that Leslie is going to come after me if I don't update.... LOL!

Well let's see. It's been over a month. What have I done?

Memorial Day weekend the 3 of us took the travel trailer up between Texarkana & Jefferson. One day we went antique shopping where I made a grand entrance by falling down a staircase in the middle of the store! I kid you not! I literally did the splits on the stairs and spent the rest of the day limping! The next day we went to Texarkana so that we could take pics on the state line! Silly I know but you should have seen Jason trying to get Drew to put one foot on either side of the line! LOL! While we were in Texarkana we went to a furniture store and FINALLY bought an entertainment center. And we brought it home with us so there was no chance of finding out 2 months later that it was no longer available. We got a good deal on it because it was missing a couple of screws--like those are so hard to come by. It looks great in there but naked cause of course I haven't gotten any pics or knick-knacks on it yet. I'll do that next year! LOL!

The first weekend in June we went up to Arlington for GASC. Let me tell you--that was the trip from hell! Seriously! Before we even left the house we had a small fire in Drew's room! Mr. Fire Chief Jason informed me that it couldn't be considered a fire since there were no flames but I say that black smoke + melting plug cover and outlet = Fire in my world! We had the travel trailer plugged into the outlet on the wall outside Drew's room and apparently it overloaded it and melted everything. After playing fire fighter and electrician, we left.

About 3 hours later we arrive at our RV park. They didn't like the way Jason pulled in so they made him go back around and come in from the other direction. BIG MISTAKE! He was so concerned with not running into the tree that he ran over the water hook-up, snapping it off at the ground and creating our very own Old Faithful! LOL! You should have seen how many old men (and women) it took to figure out how to shut off the water. After about an hour or so, they got it shut off and had to hook our trailer and the one next to us to other water sources. So....in one day Jason was not only a fire fighter and electrician but he was also a plumber! LOL! Growing up in a hardware store does have advantages.

The next day Sarah and I head out to GASC where we meet up with Leslie. We had a blast shopping! I got so many cool things this year and had so much fun! We stayed until they were literally tearing down the booths!

Here's Leslie & I. Aren't we cute? LOL! (Really, we both look tired from all that shopping, huh?)

On Sunday Jason, Drew, & I head out to Ikea. We had never been to an Ikea (and according to Jason, we will never return! LOL!) We spent an ungodly amount of time in there. Drew was cranky. Jason was hot (and cranky). We had 3 carts loaded down with $1000 worth of shelves for my scraproom and Jason's office along with a plastic red chair that Drew insisted on pushing like it was a cart. I don't know how many employees we passed that were just standing there watching us struggle with their crazy sideways rolling carts and a possessed 2 year old! That really ticked Jason off! LOL! I understand that that is why they are so cheap but really would it hurt someone to at least act busy instead of staring? LOL! I got all the shelves I wanted but the drawer inserts were out of stock. Now that I've got my shelves together I'm thinking I might not actually want the drawers. But if I do, Jason said I would have to order them online. Once we got outside, we infuriated many a customer because the travel trailer was hooked to the truck and we took up too much room while loading our stuff. I know you're thinking this weekend couldn't possibly get any worse. Ha! Think again!

We got out of there and back on the road by about 2:30. At this point we still had not eaten anything for the day. Drew had had some sish (goldfish) and juice but that was it. Jason wanted to get out of the Dallas area before stopping. About 20 miles from Forney the fuel light came on. Jason said that we could go 30-40 more miles. I suggested we stop in Forney just to be safe but he assured me that we would make it to Terrill with plenty of diesel to spare. HA! Wrong! We were just about to pull off on the Terrill exit when the truck ran out of diesel! (Sometimes I am worth listening to!) It coasted off of the interstate and died! We could see the truck stop sign up over the trees but it was a good quarter to half mile away. Now I know that these days you can't just stop and help stranded motorists anymore but really how scary did the 3 of us look? Finally Jason decided to walk to the gas station and hope that they sold gas cans. (I was perfectly fine with staying there in the truck. It was broad daylight and I had a cell phone and a little friend between the seats so I was good! Drew on the other hand was not so fine with it. She screeched "Belt off!" & "Hot!" & "Juice!" pretty much the entire time he was gone. She also screamed "Stop cars!" everytime a car or truck passed us!) The gas station did not sell gas cans but they did have one. They wouldn't let Jason use it as they said that he would not bring it back. He tried to buy it for $50 even and they refused. A random guy in there happened to have one in his truck that he let Jason take. When Jason returned it he gave the guy $20 just to prove a point to the store clerk! LOL! I believe we finally got to eat our first meal of the day at 4:45! See.....I told you--Weekend from hell! LOL!

If you haven't totally fallen asleep reading my tale, how about some pictures?

The first 3 layouts are my Simply Obsessed layouts for June. How cool is that kit? LOVE it!

The crown and wand set was made for the Last Scrapper Standing contest (as were the "Brand New" and "I Worry" layouts). I made the Top 20 but not the Top 10. I was pretty disappointed but Drew is very happy with her crown and wand (which she uses more like a sword) so that's what really matters, right?

I must go to bed now. Jason's going to watch Drew all day tomorrow so I can have a day all to myself! I'm going shopping! See ya!

B

PS--Les, are you happy now? ;)

It's been a long time!

2008-05-14T22:52:00.004-05:00

Dena so kindly pointed out that I needed to update so here I am! LOL!

Not a whole lot going on around here. Had a major war against fleas and finally won! I've decided that fleas are quite possibly the worst creature on Earth! During the war, I was vacuuming the entire house everyday--sometimes twice a day--and Jason decided that I needed a Dyson. I got one as part of my Mother's Day gift and wow is that thing cool! I can't believe what all it sucked out of the carpet that should have been super clean already from the constant vacuuming!

Here are the pages & cards I've done recently.

Great News!

2008-04-24T13:03:00.004-05:00

My layouts from Scrapbook Trends have been found and have arrived back home safely!!! (LOL! I know you were all "worried"! LOL!) I am so happy and Jason's so happy to not hear me gripe about it anymore! They sent me an extra box of goodies too to replace the lost originals but they all got here at the same time. I may do an RAK soon to share my extras.

I did this page for Random Chaos this week.

The challenge is to create a non-rectangle/non-square page. I chose a circle. I just loved the papers and embellishments that were in the Scarlet Lime kit and mostly used stuff from it. I really love how it turned out and others must have too cause it was chosen as LOTD at Create My Keepsake on Tuesday!

We went to the zoo a couple of weeks ago and that was one of the photos I got of Drew. I got some other good ones that I'll have to post later. She actually seemed to get into the whole zoo thing this time. She looked at the animals more than she has in the past. She also got to walk around a bit instead of staying stuck in the stroller or the wagon and of course she liked that!

Drew's been pubbed!

2008-04-13T18:57:00.005-05:00

I've been meaning to post this but kept forgetting to do so! Drew's cutie face has been in several magazines lately!

Scrapbook Trends March 2008: I didn't make this page. My friend Leslie did (but I did get a little photo credit there!) It's in a frame on my wall!

Scrapbook Trends Embellish Idea Book: This is my first pub with ST. I just love this pic of Drew. She was peeking around the stair post at me when I was trying to take her photo!

This was published in Somerset Studios in February. I'ts a wall hanging I made for Sarah's birthday a few years ago. That's me and her many, many years ago!

I also have a page in the April issue of ST. I'm a little sad that I may never see those 2 pages again though. I've been waiting and waiting for their return, along with my copies of the magazines and goodies. I emailed to see when they would arrive and was told that they had been sent to my PO box through USPS instead of to my house via Fed Ex. That would be fine if I actually had a PO box! Who knows where my pages will end up! I have no idea how they could have made that mistake as my name and address are on the back of each page.

Anyone care to guess?

2008-04-10T02:29:00.004-05:00

What in the world did UPS do with this box? I mean seriously! That one end was actually formed by bits of cardboard and tape! Surprisingly the contents of this box were unharmed! How they managed to survive, I do not know!

My other issue with UPS is that they refuse to put my packages on the front porch. Instead they place them on the driveway in front of the garage doors. Everytime! They have to drive past my front door to get to the side of the house where the garage is! The front porch is covered--the perfect place to keep packages dry in this unpredictable East Texas weather--but noooooo on the driveway they go! The other day it was raining and Jason comes in the house with a dripping plastic bag. In it was a package from UPS. They had put it into a bag and TAPED it to my garage door! If I had opened the garage door from the inside (as I would have had to do to get out!), it could have been squashed or gotten stuck! What the heck? Another day Jason went out to find a box on the hood of his Jeep! Totally not cool!

Pink Paislee at Simply Obsessed!

2008-04-08T22:57:00.004-05:00

The April newsletter was posted today and I am so excited to finally be able to share my stuff! I love love love this Pink Paislee line! It coordinates perfectly with our photos from Easter. (It almost looks like someone may have planned it that way! LOL!) All of these photos are from Papa's birthday party and Easter with the family. Have lots more to share too! Drew became a professional egg hunter!

This one is my sketch layout. Drew calls all dogs "fuff" so I had to make a page about it!

If you want to see the pages better, just click on the pic! It should make it bigger.

New Stuff

2008-03-20T00:29:00.008-05:00

2 weekends ago I went to a crop that my friend Amanda was having. I got 5 layouts done which is a ton for me since I normally spend more time chatting than actually working! This past weekend was Simply Obsessed's online crop. Jason took care of Drew all weekend and I was able to get a whole bunch of pages and projects done.

I've been busy huh? And that's not even all of them!

Gotta love Texas weather!

2008-03-14T00:44:00.003-05:00

Just last week Drew was out playing in the snow and today she was a fairy fluttering around the yard yelling "Fy! Fy!" and flapping her arms!

Crazy huh?

What is this?

2008-03-07T16:22:00.003-06:00

OMG! It's snow! This is what we woke up to this morning! May seem perfectly normal to some of you, but it NEVER snows here! NEVER!

Of course I had to take Drew outside to see it and snap a few pics! We don't exactly have "snow clothes" so we only stayed out about 5 minutes. She kept running to the window, yelling "Dares no!" which translates to "There's snow!" and when we came in she stood at the garage door waving "Bye no!" How stinkin' cute is that?

The sun came out for the first time this week and now there is no evidence that there was snow! That's East Texas weather for ya!

Lots of stuff

2008-03-05T01:54:00.010-06:00

to share!

First of all, I was asked to be the Guest Designer at www.createmykeepsake.com for March. I will be creating with Glitz Designs products and I'm super excited! Here's the page I made for the challenge that won me the spot.

The March newsletter for Simply Obsessed went out last night. Here are my pages.

Sean & Brandi had their baby, a girl, on February 12. She's very cute and super tiny!

On February 15, Drew learned how to climb out of her crib so we converted her bed to a big girl bed. It took a few days to get her to stay in it! Of course we had to get photos of the escape!

On February 23, I drove to Houston at the crack of dawn for a day of scrappy shopping with Brandy & Heather. We had a blast!

Here is last week's Random Chaos challenge--a birthday page.

This week's challenge is to use photos that are at least 5 years old. I chose this pic of Pawpaw to scrap.

Random Chaos #2 & #3

2008-02-18T15:25:00.003-06:00

I just realized I never posted last week's Random Chaos page! Whoops!

And here is this week's page. The challenge is to use only patterned paper--no cardstock.

New Pages & Cards

2008-02-10T02:01:00.000-06:00

Here are the 2 pages I got finished today. I also worked on my Random Chaos challenge but can't show it until Monday.

I also worked on my Serendipity Kit this week. Super cute Valentine-y paper.

Need a place to crop this weekend?

2008-02-08T18:15:00.000-06:00

A weekend crop at Simply Obsessed kicks off tonight and runs through Sunday. There will be great challenges, fun games, and some cool prizes.

www.simplyobsessed.biz

Friday 7 pm - 10pm (EST)
Saturday 10 am - 7 pm (EST)
Sunday 10 am - 4 pm (EST)

And "CHA in Spirit Day" is Saturday at Two Peas. There will be challenges every hour, prizes for each one, and great "drive-by" prizes as well.

www.twopeasinabucket.com (The Pub message board)

Saturday 9 am - midnight (EST)

I will be hosting challenges and games at both so I hope to see you there!

Random Chaos #1

2008-02-05T01:34:00.001-06:00

The first challenge for Random Chaos debuted Monday morning. It was a total challenge for me--use 6 different manufacturers. I'm such a matchy-matchy person that I definitely had to work for this one. I somehow ended up using stuff from 9 different companies. Yay me!

Here's what I came up with.

Use the link on the right to see what the other girls came up with this week.

Adding a Little Chaos to My Life (And other great news)

2008-02-01T00:44:00.001-06:00

Random Chaos that is! I got the news Sunday evening that I made the team at Random Chaos. It's a great new challenge blog by Janelle Richmond. Every Monday there will be a fabulous challenge posted along with our designs. I'm a little nervous because there are some awesome scrappers on the team and I don't wanna look bad. I've been working on my first challenge all week and let me tell you, it is a CHALLENGE! Ironically enough the layout I did for ScrapFriendzy fits it and I didn't even do it on purpose! Here's the layout but you'll never guess the challenge!

Follow the "Random Chaos" link over on the right on Monday and check out the challenge!

I got some really cool news yesterday too! Jana Lillie from Creating Keepsakes Magazine called me and they are going to use one of my pages and techniques for their "Tips & Tricks" section. It will be in the June issue. Jason is thrilled since it is a page about his jeep!

Today's page

2008-01-25T00:42:00.000-06:00

Papa and cutie nephew #2. I think this page may need some stitching or buttons or something. It looks a bit naked.

More Serendipity Kits January Kit

2008-01-23T15:48:00.000-06:00

This was by far my favorite kit so far! I love the papers by We R Memory Keepers and have used almost all of it already! It was perfect for pictures of my nephews! I very rarely do boy pages and it was a nice change. I guess their mama needs to get me more pics! :)

There was a challenge to "scraplift" or copy a page from a fellow DT member so I used one of Kory's to do this page. I just love this photo of Alex!

Another one of my BIL and nephew.

Simply Obsessed Design Team Call

2008-01-21T00:55:00.000-06:00

I can't believe 6 months has already flown by! I was very sad to see my design team term coming to an end, when Jaime and Shauna asked if I would like to stay on for another term. Well....YEAH! Of course I do! I love everyone there. We have lots of fun and the kits are super cute! They are, however, looking for 5 new members, so if you are interested in trying out check out www.simplyobsessed.biz. The details are on the home page. We would love to have you!

Serendipity Kits (January)

2008-01-19T03:12:00.001-06:00

Made this today with my January kit from Serendipity Kits.

My brother in law and 2 cutie nephews

Catching Up!

2008-01-17T17:49:00.000-06:00

Trying to get my pregnancy album finished since Drew is now 18 months old!

Can't get any cuter

2008-01-16T16:31:00.000-06:00

than this picture! This was over a year ago in the old house when Drew still slept in the cradle in our room. I heard a little giggle and sat up in bed to see 2 tiny eyes peeking out at me. She had learned to turn over in her bed! So cute!

Silly Santa

2008-01-15T01:35:00.000-06:00

Look at this silly girl! Won't wear a regular hat for nothing, but loved this crazy thing!

Simply Obsessed January Kit

2008-01-14T17:51:00.000-06:00

I'm really sad that this is my last kit for SO. I've have totally loved working with everyone there! I will definitely be hanging around after the term is up in February.

This month the kit featured "Frost" by My Mind's Eye which is one of my very favorite companies, felt birds by Maya Road, and some super cook snowflakes chipboard also by Maya Road.

Here's what I came up with!

And this month I was in charge of the sketch for the newsletter. Here's what I came up with for that.

That cutie is Zoe. She belongs to Dena. So glad I got to scrap these pics! And this layout was chosen as Layout of the Day at CMK a few days ago!

31 Flavors

2008-01-14T00:02:00.000-06:00

At Simply Obsessed we are doing a month long challenge--31 layouts in 31 days. Each day a challenge is posted. There will be prizes given out so be sure to stop by!

Here's what I've done so far!

Seriously!

2008-01-13T00:29:00.000-06:00

Did you know it takes 11 hours to get from Dallas to our house? Those of you that know where I live, know that this is no where near the truth! Unless you were with us yesterday and it did in fact take us 11 hours!

Let's back up a few weeks ago when Jason took his 2007 Dodge truck in for the 2nd time because it seemed like the transmission was having issues. Both times they gave it back declaring that there was absolutely NOTHING wrong with it. Even I know that a truck is NOT supposed to sputter and lurch every time it takes off! Anyhow.

Yesterday we leave Sarah's apartment complex in Dallas headed to a rig near Clebourne (not sure if that's spelled right and I'm too lazy to look it up! LOL!) to try to fix the mess that our most recent ex-employee has created. We get about 30 minutes from said location and the truck starts lurching all over the place. The RPMs were revving up and up and the truck was getting slower and slower. Jason coasted to a stop on the side of the road (by this time we were thankfully far away from the freeways but also far away from anything else! LOL!).

The first person he calls is the lovely Dodge place that told him his truck was fine. He had warned them that he would be calling them from the side of the road very soon! LOL! They were no help at all. He then called the roadside assistance people who were very helpful but quite funny. The lady wanted to send someone to see if they could get the truck going. Jason asked her if there was a "magic transmission restart button" somewhere that he didn't know about! LOL! She got a wrecker service on the way which would take about 45 minutes to an hour because of the size of Jason's truck and the fact that we had a trailer with it (we had been helping Sarah move). Of course tow trucks are not equipped to carry wives and babies in car seats so we had to call Enterprise to "come pick us up". So there we are on the side of a busy road loading all our crap into the Jeep Cherokee they sent after us. Drew and I rode back to the rental car place with the guy that brought it. Drew kept staring at him and he kept trying to make small talk but I could tell he was as uncomfortable with the situation as I was! LOL! Jason went to the Dodge place with the wrecker and his truck.

The Dodge place refused to let the trailer stay with the truck and the rental car place wouldn't let us tow it so it is sitting in the wrecker yard for $20 a day! We are also paying $55 a day for a rental car (that we only needed to get us home!) that cannot be returned to the Enterprise place here in town. It must be taken to one 2 hours away! The Dodge place can't even look at the truck until Monday or maybe Tuesday. I'm sure the local Dodge place will get quite an ear full from Jason on Monday!

The company man we were headed to talk to? Not even there! LOL!

So.....11 hours after leaving we arrived home! With a 2008 Jeep Grand Cherokee that had everyone confused! LOL!

Oh my!

2008-01-08T00:39:00.001-06:00

It has been a very, very long time since I posted! We had a good Christmas and New Year. Mom, Dad, Grandma, Henry, & Sarah came here and we had our first Christmas in our new house. Everything went really great! Drew LOVED opening presents! So much that she was running from person to person trying open any gift she saw! Santa brought her a Cabbage Patch Newborn with a little cradle and she immediately picked her up, grabbed the "bobble" and started feeding her. She's such a good little mama! She got tons of other stuff too. Toys galore! She apparently got my "neatness" gene--stuff everywhere! LOL! Here's one of her present opening techniques.

And a pic of her and "baby".

My Kits & Pieces/Creating Pages

2007-12-02T15:07:00.000-06:00

This month I designed for My Kits & Pieces using this super pretty Cosmo Cricket paper and Hambly overlays. I've never used Hambly before and I'll admit I was a little scared of it. I think It turned out nicely once I got over my fear of cutting it.

I've been busy!

2007-11-28T00:27:00.001-06:00

It seems like it's been forever since I've posted. I've been really busy, yet I don't seem to be getting anything done! LOL!

Here are a few layouts I did with the November Kit from Serendipity Kits.

And a few others I haven't shared yet.

And I get to use it again!

2007-11-18T11:33:00.001-06:00

My cute little sign that is!

Scrapbook Trends emailed yesterday requesting a page titled "My Wish" for their "Inspired by a song" challenge in the April issue. Miss Drew's face is gonna be all over in March and April! Yay!

Lookie what I get to use!

2007-11-08T21:42:00.000-06:00

Dena made me this CUTE little sign! Scrapbook Trends requested my "Silly Girl" layout for their Embellish! book that comes out in March! I'm so excited! Yay!

I'm a Girlfriend!

2007-11-03T15:05:00.000-05:00

I was asked by Amy & Ronda to join them at their new site/blog, Scrap-Friendzy, as a "Girlfriend". There's going to be challenges and techniques and lots of other fun stuff going on! The contest for November has just been posted using one of my layouts as inspiration. Check it out! http://scrap-friendzy.blogspot.com/

The Cutest Ladybug Ever, An Adorable Witch, & a Sexy Cat

2007-10-31T23:52:00.000-05:00

Ok maybe I was getting a bit carried away with "sexy", but I do think I look better with the ears! On the way to town I told Jason, "You know today is the only day that I can wear cat ears without people thinking I'm crazy." He looked at me with a look that can only be interpreted as, "And you think they aren't?" I'm pretty sure he was just jealous!

This was the first time we took Drew trick or treating (and it was actually my first time trick or treating too!). At the first house, she threw her bag at the lady and turned to run. After that, she tried to go into the houses! Silly baby!

I've been tagged! (TWICE!)

2007-10-23T11:52:00.000-05:00

Here are the rules which must be posted on your blog if you are tagged:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

I was tagged by:

Ronda http://ronda-no-h.blogspot.com/

Kory http://www.kadordea.blogspot.com/

1. I am SCARED of tiny dogs! Seriously!

2. I would rather stay up all night and sleep all day!

3. I changed my major in college 5 times (accounting, business, criminal justice (don't laugh I was gonna be a lawyer!), art education, elementary education).

4. Being a SAHM is actually tougher than teaching 6th graders (somedays).

5. I dip my french fries in mayo.

6. I make messes and piles EVERYWHERE!

7. The TV has to be on all day whether anyone is watching it or not!

There! Now you know I'm a freak! LOL!

I tag:

Leslie http://leslieashe.typepad.com/my_weblog/

Amy http://www.amygaskins.blogspot.com/

Cammeron http://www.cammeronkaiser.blogspot.com/

Janet http://myunorganizedwonderfullife.blogspot.com/

Tonya http://creativit-tonya.blogspot.com/

Delfina http://denisemart.blogspot.com/

Brandy http://brandyproductions.blogspot.com/

Serendipity Kits (October)

2007-10-23T01:28:00.001-05:00

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I've been working on my layouts for the October Kit from Serendipity Kits. The American Crafts paper is awesome! Love the colors and they matched (totally unplanned!) the pics I took of Drew wearing that super cute black & white outfit from Jenn. If you haven't already ordered this kit RUN to the site and pick one up! I think there are just a few left!

I've been busy!

2007-10-22T01:50:00.000-05:00

I've been scrapping away the past few days and have quite a lot to share!

Here's my cutie nephew on a slide. I don't often do boy pages and it was pretty fun!

Can't decide if I like this card or not. LOL!

And here's Drew and one of her many blankets. She loves the silky side and rubs it between her thumb and index finger. Sometimes when she falls asleep her little fingers are still rubbing together even if the blanket's not there. So sweet!

That's all for tonight! I'm very sleepy!

Totally made my day!

2007-10-15T14:22:00.000-05:00

One of my layouts was chosen as LOTD (Layout of the Day) at Create My Keepsake. Thanks so much! You can check it out here!

http://www.createmykeepsake.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16238

Simply Obsessed October Kit (and a few other things)

2007-10-14T17:24:00.000-05:00

I loved, loved, loved the October kit from Simply Obsessed! How pretty are these Daisy D's papers?

Here are the things I've made with it so far.

I've started another one with my cute nephew but I'll need to check with his mama before I post it.

Here's a couple I did for challenges at Bliss. The first one was a challenge to do a 6" x 12" layout and the second was a 3 product challenge: felt, chipboard, & buttons.

I got my first kit from Serendipity yesterday. I love those papers too and have already started working on my pages--using pics I took yesterday!

I just love her reflection in the last one!

PS--I got my ring back from Zale's last night! It's PERFECT! Now WHY couldn't they have done that the first time?

My {Sweet} Girl

2007-10-13T00:56:00.000-05:00

So today I wasn't feeling all that great--had a headache that just wouldn't quit. I was lying on the couch moaning and groaning and my sweetie girl came over and started rubbing my head. Just when I had a total "Mommy moment" thinking that that was the sweetest thing ever, what did she do?

She SPIT on me!!!!!!!!!!!!

I kid you not! My 15 month old actually spit on my face! Gee thanks! Apparently that was her way of saying "Get a grip Mom!" Crazy baby!

I am not a cardmaker

2007-10-09T18:04:00.000-05:00

but I did have fun making these for the challenges I hosted at Simply Obsessed. I participated in 4 challenges at Create My Keepsakes as well. Maybe I'll try something new and actually send these to people.

World Card Making Day!

2007-10-06T11:39:00.000-05:00

Lots of cool challenges going on at www.simplyobsessed.biz! There are prizes and you have until Sunday midnight to complete them! Go check it out!

Monday Mojo

2007-10-01T16:20:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it's already October? This year is just FLYING by!

This week I want to challenge you to use notebook paper in your layouts. You can cut the fringies off if you want but I prefer mine to look like it just came out of a notebook. Here's an example layout that I did awhile back (part of my DT try-outs actually). I used it for my journaling but you can mat a picture with it or even just use it as a design element on your page.

If you need some more inspiration, check out the gallery at Simply Obsessed. I know that Kory has some great pages using notebook paper and I'm sure there are many others posted as well.

You have until Sunday,October 7 at midnight cst to post your pages. Every page you do will get your name entered into a drawing for a small prize. Be sure to post a link here. And please create something new for the challenge this week.

As always EVERYONE is invited to play along! That includes owners, DT members, members, dogs or cats that may decide to be scrappy, EVERYONE! I can't wait to see what you make!

Monday Mojo

2007-09-24T15:51:00.000-05:00

This week's challenge is to use memorabilia on a layout. Get out those ticket stubs, brochures, ballgame programs, and receipts and put them on a page! On my example I used our ticket stubs and created a chipboard embellishment with part of a brochure.

Go to http://www.simplyobsessed.biz/ to load your layouts before Midnight Sunday. The entire challenge can be viewed here.

http://simplyobsessed.biz/messageboard/showthread.php?p=5389#post5389

Can't wait to see what you come up with!

PS--Just got off the phone with the local Zales store manager and he is overnighting my ring to Florida and has been speaking with the manager and the jeweler there. He ASSURES me that my ring will be perfect when I receive it back in a few weeks. We shall see. :)

I Hate Zales!

2007-09-23T00:23:00.000-05:00

Ok maybe 'hate' is too strong a word but they are definitely not high on my list right now!

Remember that BEAUTIFUL new ring I posted about? Yeah it's on its way back to Florida as I type. I was so excited that it finally got here when I posted before that I failed to mention the many flaws it had. The center stone was set crooked, set with yellow gold (on a white gold ring!), and the stone was loose! It actually JINGLED when I typed!!!!! Plus when they set the stone they added to the diameter of the band so it no longer fit my finger. Anyhow--rather than send it back to Florida we took it to the Zales here. We have the Lifetime Protection Plan that is (supposed to be) good at any Zales store. We took it 2 weeks ago. They were appalled at the way the stone was set. They couldn't believe and were embarrassed that a Zales store would send out a piece of jewelry in that condition. They assured us that it would be fixed and look perfect from ALL angles and not fly off my hand if I waved.

Fast forward to today. We went in to pick it up. The stone did not jingle--that's good. The ring fit my finger perfectly--excellent. Turn it to the side--OMG! It looked the same--if not worse! It was still set with yellow gold and still crooked...plus in their attempt to fix it they removed some of the detail from the sides. I seriously almost started crying! Especially when the lady informed us that it was not their mistake to begin with and then she told us that they were not going to fix it. That it would have to be sent back to the store in Florida. She also kept talking about the fact that it came from a "Zales Outlet" store like it was made out of glass and aluminum foil. That really ticked me off! Especially with the fact that it is a REAL "Zales Certified" diamond and it is REAL gold and it did REALLY have a 5 figure price tag! It shouldn't matter where it was purchased--it has their name on it. They should stand behind it! UGH! Totally sucks!

So Jason will be speaking to the Florida store Monday and he assures me that (a) I will have a brand new base (since they've all made a mess out of mine) and it will look perfect or (b) they will have to give us a refund. Or he said they will be speaking to our lawyer (We have a lawyer???). It will be interesting to see what actually happens. All I know is that I LOVE that ring and WANT THAT ring! I don't want to pick out something different. It is the perfect one--if they get it set correctly!

I can't completely hate them because we also took my original wedding ring in to be resized. I've not been able to wear it in forever--since February 2006 to be exact! They resized it perfectly and cleaned around all the side diamonds and polished all the scratches away. I swear it looks better than it has in the 12 years I've had it! All sparkley and pretty! I still love it! And I still LOVE the man that gave it to me!

Monday Mojo

2007-09-17T01:49:00.000-05:00

I've been so excited for this challenge! Last week, Rachel (at CMK) hosted "Scrappy Hour" and this is what I created. I am LOVING the 6" x 12" size and I'm LOVING, LOVING, LOVING the transparent background! The pink paper is BEHIND the transparency and everything else is layered on top. How cool is that?

Because I loved this layout so much, I asked Rachel if it was OK for me to use this technique for my "Monday Mojo". This week I'd love for you all to create a layout or a card on a transparent background. You'll love it! When you get your wonderful creations finished be sure to post at http://www.simplyobsessed.biz/ to be included in my weekly drawing.

Is there really a problem

2007-09-12T00:47:00.000-05:00

with people trying to get out of Wal-Mart with a curling iron stuffed down their pants? That's the only reason I can think of that it took me 10 freakin' minutes to get my new curling iron out of its package! People must be stealing them via their pants! So if you see someone walking a bit funny and they have an electrical cord following them...you now know what it is! I could have severed a limb getting into this thing! Then I would have died with yucky hair! UGH!

Jason broke his toe this morning. Who knew you had to open the door BEFORE you go through it? It looks really gross and of course I took pics but don't worry I won't post them here. You may, however, have been lucky enough to receive it in your email! :)