Sneak Peek

Here is a mini clip of Blake playing on the deck. He loves it out there. A couple of toy balls to toss around equals tons of giggles. Sometimes so many he cant hold himself up. lol I love his laughs.

TV & THREADS

So it seems Blake is taking after his dad and loves music but prefers Rap. One of my boys favorite shows to watch is Hip Hop Harry, he loves this show and will sit through the entire thing. I just love to watch him interested in something. I think its because its full of alot of signing and dancing. He also loves to watch Meteror and the mighty monster trucks. . This kid is all boy, and I love it. He is so tough.

My newest addiction in scrapping is thread. I still hate sewing on buttons, but I love to add stitches to my pages in other ways. Lately I'm adding frames around the pictures and pages with thread. Give it a try. I love the look and the little something extra it adds.

My plans today include trying to make it to Archivers to look around. I would like to find those Maya Road sheer journal notes still, but I doubt they have them. I ask everytime I'm in there with no luck. I'm sure they are even sick of me asking. IMO to be Archivers, which is a decently well known scrap store, they don't carry the latest products, like I would expect. Still No AC spring and summer collection :( oh well I guess it keeps me from spending to much $.

The Fix

As many of you already know, I could not get my comment key to work. I tried many things. Like the comment link show/hide, nope didn't fix it. Next I tried to tried Layout tab, page elements blog edit. Nope that didn't work either, but I did discover some cool options in there. (i thought they were cool at least) Then I tried Posting tab, post option down on the bottom, yes that option is in there but it was already turn on and still nothing. Finally, I googled it, Yes I did. After a couple of tries I found this magnificent blog.

After much aggravation, researching, and of course reading I figured it out. Yay. Somehow, when I first started the blog the comment widget code was corrupt and there gone altogether. I had to find the code in my HTML template layout deleted it, save the template and then paste the same exact code back in. Sounds crazy insane, but it worked like a charm. Yay. So a huge thank you to this wonderful blog. Yay I have comments. So Exciting!

Ride Sally Ride

I really dislike that song "Mustang Sally" so much. My mother and Josh sign it to me bc of my love of the mustang. But good news my neighbor Jeromy fixed my car. Yessss! It was very simple really and only took him about 3 hours maybe. After all it was the darn manifold. The thing was broken in two allowing air to get in. I'm happy to know that the times I was forced to drive it, like when I forgot the lights on in the Saturn and had to go back and pick Josh up from the Hospital, that I wasn't causing anymore damage to my car. I was really excited that it didn't have to go to the shop, or be towed anywhere, or even stay disassembled for days or weeks. Its summer and I love to drive my car in the summer. It just feels better. Sporty cars are made for the summer sun.

Next mission is getting to tag renewal, now that I can actually drive it somewhere to get a work slip, aka oil change, for the GA emissions board. Yet another hassle of the army. This thing is so annoying. Hopefully this will be the last time. Fingers Crossed.

And look I have 74,889 miles. My little oil change sticker in the windows read 77 something thousand before the next oil change was due or before 6/12/07. So yeah my car was driven like 200 miles in the last year. Wow that would never happen in GA. Also another reason I love CO, everything is so close by. Georgia is less populated so its more spread out and therefore a longer drive. My mother in law says its growing super fast and I probably will feel lost in my home town once we move. You can even see my little alien guy, isn't he so cute. He has rode on my steering column since late 2002. Can you believe that? I secretly know he likes it though.:)

Since we don't live around kids, and I don't work therefore Blake does not have to attend daycare, I wasn't sure how he would react with other kids. But he loves it. The new neighbors have 2 kids Jacob and Alexis. They are older than Blake. Jake will be 4 in a few days and Alexis turned 7 a couple weeks ago. He likes the attention they give him. They both love to push him in his car. Blake loves it too, he will ride as long as someone will push. And I love that the handle comes down to a child level too. This was really a great investment and I see tons of miles of riding this summer. Don't they look so cute outside enjoying a beautiful summer day.

What do you do all day?

A man came home from work and found his three children outside, still in their pajamas, playing in the mud, with empty food boxes and wrappers strewn all around the front yard.The door of his wife's car was open, as was the front door to the house and there was no sign of the dog. Proceeding into the entry, he found an even bigger mess. A lamp had been knocked over, and the throw rug was wadded against one wall.In the front room the TV was loudly blaring a cartoon channel, and the family room was strewn with toys and various items of clothing.In the kitchen, dishes filled the sink, breakfast food was spilled on the counter, the fridge door was open wide, dog food was spilled on the floor, a broken glass lay under the table, and a small pile of sand was spread by the back door.He quickly headed up the stairs, stepping over toys and more piles of clothes, looking for his wife. He was worried she might be ill, or that something serious had happened.He was met with a small trickle of water as it made its way out the bathroom door.As he peered inside he found wet towels, scummy soap and more toys strewn over the floor. Miles of toilet paper lay in a heap and toothpaste had been smeared over the mirror and walls.As he rushed to the bedroom, he found his wife still curled up in the bed in her pajamas, reading a novel. She looked up at him, smiled, and asked how his day went.He looked at her bewildered and asked, "What happened here today?"She again smiled and answered, "You know every day when you come home from work and you ask me what in the world I do all day?""Yes," was his incredulous reply.She answered, "Well, today I didn't do it.".

I received this in one of those silly emails everyone feels the need to forward. Except this one, I actually took a few minutes to read and thought I would post it here. I think its cute.

As for us, we are doing ok. Today was a typical day for Blake and I. We did a little grocery shopping and alot of looking. Then we purchased a new battery for my car because I want to get it fix to drive again. Yay, cant wait for that. Its nice to be able to go where you want to when you want. But when we actually get my car fixed and drivable again, I will have to buy Blakers another car seat. Now that were on the subject of Blake, he is starting to take a few steps on his own now before he gives up and puts his hands down, falls down on them and starts to crawl again. I guess he is still a bit unsure of this walking thing. Its really cute though, and I love to watch him crawl on his hands and feet. I want to scrap it so badly, but I cant get a decent shot of it. He always stops when he sees I have the camera in hand, and gives me a huge smile.

The Quiet Storm

One: The grass is finally turning a little in our yard. Yay. Still looks awful, but at least something is starting to happen.

Two: I've been busy in the yard planting flowers. Blake enjoyed watching me plant them. He even picked a bloom to taste. (Laughs)

Three: PTSD is still haunting my world. Ahhh its so annoying and confusing.

Four: We went to On the Border AKA my favorite place, for dinner tonight with our friend Brandon. Blake really likes him. Blake also enjoyed his first tortilla chips. He would take his finger and help smash them in his mouth....so cute.

Five: I've had some time to scrap this week. I'm doing something a little different and I decided to go back to the 8.5 X 11 style. Actually I prefer doing 8.5x12 so they fit snug in the 12x12 albums. I'm strange I know this already. I love my scrap friend Jill's work and her creative freestyle and thought I would try some of her ideas. Turns out its pretty fun and not doing things "perfect" isn't so bad. The pages seem to come together so much quicker. Here are a couple of my latest for your viewing pleasure. I feel this first page is missing something. I was considering adding a few buttons around the page. Not sure yet.

Six: No news to report on the military status. That's also annoying.

Seven: My FIL house was hit and destroyed by the tornado's in Georgia on Tuesday. Lucky It wasn't the home he resides in. Bad for us, because he was going to allow us to stay there when we move back home, so we could take the time to find the right house. I don't want to be house poor. I'm a smart girl and I don't have to keep up with the Jones, Smiths and Rockafellers to be happy. With that said we don't want a dump either.

Eight: I recently discovered I could listen to my favorite radio station on the net. Why didn't I think of this 5 years ago. I so missed some of my favorite DJ's...... Porsche Foxx, Greg Street, Ryan Cameron, and Joyce Littel and the Quiet Storm....... ahhhh I always listened to this on my drive home from the OC.

Bored!

Life at my house has been pretty boring over the last week. Why blog about the typical daily routine and stomach aches. Blah ~ Boring. The update on Blake. He now has 6 beautiful shiny pearly whites, 4 on top and 2 on bottom. They are so sparkly, I love to see them when he smiles. Bad thing he is now trying to bite your shoulder or your leg at the most unexpected times. They may be small little teeth but he sure packs a punch with those little nibbles. Ouch! I have no clue how to handle this either. Josh says bite him back, no. I'm not biting a 13 month old child. I have tried to nibble on his shoulder, but he thought it was a game and laughed. He doesn't understand yet. At his appointment yesterday, he weighed 19.9 pounds and is 30 inches long. She says still tall and skinny. That's okay with me. I've always thought tall and skinny boys were the cutest anyway.

I kinda feel like I've lost my mojo. Oh mojo where have you gone? I'm going through this change of style thing right now. Im sick of the classic stlye and want to try something more doodley. Im trying to add more pen work in my pages and crazy frames. I'm big in greens, oranges, and blues at the moment. In the beginning I scrapped everything in 8.5X11 format, then I went to 12X12 and now Im thinking of going back to 8.5X11. My OCD will not let me do both at the same time. I am such a perfectionist that I like all my pages to be the same size. Oh why? I really want to try to 6X12 but keep waiting because of this silly quirk. Ahhh.

Here is a page I started and then once I finished the frame, I lost my vision for the page and now I'm stuck with a half page. The green cardstock goes all around the page. Any ideals? Jack and Abby paper from Love Elsie. The second is a fun page to remember Blakes first Happy Meal from McDonalds. This kid loves Chicken nuggets. I have gone back and chalked the edges of the pattern paper in blue and the painted black cardstock with the same orange the star is chalked with.

Professional Protraits

FUNNY FACE

CUTE FACE



HAPPY FACE

Doesn't Blake look so damn cute in those 3 photos. We were just goofing around with the camera and look at the treasures I got.

Lucky me. It's almost 7 am and I'm wide awake. I can't sleep. Josh disappeared hours ago, and I'm still awake. I thought I would share the events of my day. Its been a rough one. The neighbors kids came over to play with Blake for a little while today. Their names are Alexis and Jacob. They like to push him in his car and eat goldfish. Kids love those things. Blake likes them. He plays better than I expected since he is never around other kids. Their dad is suppose to look at my car. Which would be great. Its a mustang and as you know they are not super baby friendly, so it really hasn't been driven in about 2 years now, except for maybe 5 times. The battery is actually dead at the moment and I cant even remember the last time it was cranked. I cant wait to have it looked at. I don't think its anything major but we'll see. I'd love to have my car back, and especially now that Blake's older.

We had some returns for Walmart, so we thought we would get Blake's birthday portraits made. Wrong! Blake had other plans. I wonder if it was bc he had a nice warm bath and lotion before we left. That always puts him to dream land. Anyway the guy working the studio was extremely young, made 18 tops, if that even. Its a very narrow space and the placement of the props makes it impossible for mom to make the child look toward the camera. Ahhh. Lets just say Blake looked at the boy with a blank what are you doing with me stare, for about ten minutes while he squeaked a little rubber duckie. My kid is such a happy kid. No energy in a photographer usually equals a bad photographer. Yeah you guessed it, no birthday pictures still. I kinda think Blake was waiting for the light to focus like my camera has. When he sees the orange light he cheeses it. As we were leaving Josh tells me and I quote he is not going to hate you for not having pictures made and you already have tons, this kinda ticks me off. My response they are not the same thing. I take snapshots, these are professional portraits, not pictures ,they are a difference. I love the look of professional shots. Maybe it has something to do with me managing a portrait studio and photographing children and babies for a few years. They are something special about a nice clean portrait in my eyes. I love them. Maybe I'll try it again in a couple of days. Speaking of those snapshots, here are a few pictures of Blake playing with a cardboard box under my scrap table. He loves to climb inside it now.

Goodies

I was finally able to go to the Scrapbook store today. I haven't been in so long. Months I'm saying. They are so many new products I really want but we wont go there tonight. They didn't really have what I wanted. I'm dying for the green apple and ceramic heart KI lace papers and the Maya Road sheer journal shapes still. I picked up these Abby and Jack papers so I could do a page of our time here in Colorado and hopefully one also when we buy a house. Still waiting for that. Josh signed his paperwork today, so we should really know something "official" in the next month. Ahhh! I'm ready for this until you put it in those terms. I think we are ready for the next stage in life and I know it will be great for Blake. He needs to be around Grandparents, aunts, and cousins.

Becky Fleck over at pagemaps is having a 2nd anniversary contest using one of her sketches. I thought I would bit the bug and give it a try. I'm busy working on that page. We cant share it until after the winners are announced but Im crossing my fingers I'll finish it by then. Im awful with those deadlines.

Here is my latest pages. These were done for a Negative/ White space challenge over at SBC. I love white space pages, but they are not one of my strong points. I also seem to be on a roll to use up my noteworthy spiral journal book. They are popping up in all my pages in seems. hehe

Making Memories & Jennifer Shabro

Making Memories recently started using guest designers on their company blog, and on April 24th, they featured the work of Jennifer Shabro. Unfortunately, there was something Making Memories obviously didn't know about Shabro, but which quickly came to light on several internet scrapbooking forums: Shabro was convicted of a felony for embezzling over $100,000 in cash and merchandise from the local scrapbook store she worked at.
Over the weekend, internet forums seethed with people furious at Making Memories for promoting the scrapbooking of someone who had been convicted of this major crime in association with her scrapbooking. Many vowed to never purchase Making Memories products again.
This morning, Making Memories became aware of the situation. Shabro's guest designer post has been pulled from their site and they issued a statement via their blog and the media saying they had no knowledge of her criminal conviction when her work was selected for the site.

I cant believe someone would have the nerve to steal that amount of supplies and only receive 180 days, to be served on consecutive weekends, and five years of formal probation. Are you kidding me. Wow. What about 5 years in jail. You can check out the story here Article.