A layout finally

So here I finally post a layout for your viewing pleasure. You will also be happy to note that this MMM talk will be over and you no longer need to read about if I will be doing it or not. I'm pleased to say my entry is all packed up and just needs to be put in the mail on Monday (In typical Stacey fashion...that is the last possible day to mail). I think I did okay. Totally not expecting and actually not caring if I win...but just happy I got it done. I like to do what I say I'm going to do. Thanks to the my advisory committee =)...it's good to get others opinions. I also took them to the scrapbook store to copy them and got the advice of some people there. That's the first time other people (beside you all) have seen my stuff. It was kind of interesting to see people's reactions to them. This layout has the crappy theme park photo on it...but I like it anyway. Emma was so cute that night.


In other scrapbook news, Simple Scrapbooks magazine requested a layout of mine. It's not for their magazine but for an online article associated with the Nov/Dec issue. I'm counting it though...cause I actually have to send it in to them and they pay me...in my book that's being published by them =).

Well, it seems I started quite the controversy regarding making your child eat liver. I think Frytown friend makes a very important point. I always based my opinion of the stuff off of taste...but if you consider that the organ is actually a poison filter...makes the case for avoiding it a little stronger. Thank-you Frytown friend for that important insight.

Don't know much else. Have a happy Saturday night!

Seven

Got this off of Shannon's Blog . Be prepared for some reading excitement (ha! that was a joke).

7 people I admire: (Do I know 7 people?) Let's see...
1. My mom
2. My dad
3. My sis
4. My bro and wifey
5. Bella
6. Emma
7. Me
Alright...that last one is pushing it. I really should get out and meet some people, huh?

7 things I say often
1. Hmmm....
2. Holy Crap
3. OK
4. He/she looks wonderful (to the parents of my cute little patients)
5. various versions of hello to my patients.
6. Bella!!!!!!!!!
7. Stupid cat =).

7 things I cannot do
1. a cartwheel
2. eat cucumbers
3. make my children eat liver like my mom made me
4. be chirpy and outgoing =)
5. watch T.V. without doing at least one other thing at the same time...cleaning, reading, etc.
6. stop buying scrapbook supplies
7. go to bed early

7 things you might not know about me
1. I have one kidney
2. I can get teary eyed at a hallmark commercial or equivalent
3. I wear a retainer at night
4. I ran an 8:30 mile today and wasn't very tired...yeah me!
5. I love the color green
6. I am an electronics geekoid...I love them all.
7. If you can't tell from reading the above...I am basically a big nerd =).

7 movies I enjoyed (do I have time to watch movies?)
1. The last movie I watched was the Family Stone...it was good.
2. I watched all the first season of Grey's Anatomy....I loved it...maybe I should have been a surgeon?
3. Watched MI-III recently, pretty good.
4. Can't remember anything prior to those three....as in question number one, maybe I should get out more.
5.
6.
7.

7 things I wish I could change in my life
1. The suckiness
2. That my house is never clean for longer than 15.5 seconds
3. That I wouldn't have to worry about "making my quota" at work
4. See number 2...get a housekeeper and nanny without a tongue ring
5. That I had some furniture in my house
6. Oh ya...and curtains too (yes I'm still lacking curtains in my house)
7. Basically, for the most part I'm pretty satisfied with my life.

7 books I have read and would read again
1. I don't read books more than one time. One and done for me.

7 people who should do this
1. See the first question...I don't believe I know 7 people =). Starla maybe?

Tongue ring for Emma

So as she requested we got Emma's tongue pierced today. Well...actually as you might have guessed from the picture below, it was her ears. She had been begging for it for quite some time...so I gave in and got it done. She barely cried and 10 seconds later was admiring her new earrings in the mirror and telling me what a big girl she was. We even had to redo her hair in a ponytail so that everyone could see her new earrings.

Didn't do too much else today. Had to go to IC this afternoon so they could detail my car as they hadn't had a chance to do it before I bought it. Got a few school clothes for Bella. She just had to have a pair of those lovely gaucho pants as all the girls have them and she wants to be just like them...pretty much a direct quote out of her mouth. Scary. My girls scare me more and more every day =).

Thanks for all of the comments yesterday...it really keeps me going, brightens my mood. I feel like I have rapidly cycling bipolar disorder....happy one day, depressed the next. My mood swings are extreme. Today was a good day =). Well enough about my psychological state of mind....overall I think I am doing pretty well considering the situation =). Hope everyone else is having a lovely day.

Bag lady

This purse cracks me up. I call it her granny purse. She loves to carry it with her to school, the grocery store, church, really doesn't matter too much where we are going. She has a few other purses, a black and pink fuzzy one, a doll diaper bag, etc. She packs the purse of choice to the rim with odds and ends. If we happen to forget it, she gets a bit upset. I even had to turn around one morning and go back and get it as we forgot it in the kitchen. Ahhh...my Emma, such a goofball.

I don't have too much to say tonight. Thinking pretty hard about not entering the MMM contest. I really don't have a chance anyway and right now it is totally feeling like work, not to mention the "celebrate life" layout. Really not needing to add any stress to my life right now. Have enough without that. Then the fiesty part of me says...Why should I let that *$*%!!%*)$#*% interfere with my plans? The overemotional part of me and fiesty part of me have been arguing all day about all sorts of things =). Makes for one tired me. Anyway, not much else worth saying right now. Hope you are all having a good day.

Odds and Ends

The girls and I had a good weekend. On Saturday we went to our neighbor county park and had a picnic. Our picnic food consisted of us going to Hy-vee and picking out lunchables for them (they love those for some reason) and a wrap for me, some baked lays and hostess cream filled cupcakes.

We walked around the park a bit, went on some trails. The girls love to "hike".

Found some wild berries along the way and enjoyed a few of those.

Bella spent the night at a friends house who then spent the day with us today.

I finished painting the girl's room. Here it is right after I was done. Quite a mess, but you get the picture. I'll post another picture when I'm done cleaning it up and putting everything in place.

Here is the promised picture of the new car (used actually). I had a ginormous SUV before. This seems kind of like a nerd car, but oh well. I guess I'm a nerd, so it probably fits. I filled up the tank with gas today for the first time and it only cost 43.00 (vs the $60 for the Armada) and I calculated the gas mileage and it was 21+ mph. That's an improvement. I'm liking the XM radio...no commercials. I like the gas mileage. I need to remember there is no beepy thing to warn me when I'm going to run into things when I'm backing up. I kind of miss my automatic lift gate (yeah...I'm lazy, but when you are carrying 50+ bags in your hands it was acutally kind of nice).

I'm still holding out hope for the MMM. I need to finish and send it off this week. The girls are in Bible school several hours per night this week so I hope to really work on that. I should have worked on it this weekend, but I was seemingly obsessed with painting, rearranging furniture, hanging pictures, organizing, etc. Made me feel better. I'm sure some psychiatrist/psychologist could go a long way with that one. Anyway, have a good day!

Painting like a crazy woman

No pictures today. I haven't taken many lately. I go in streaks. Sorry, I know it is much more interesting to look at pictures than reading my mumbo jumbo.

I've been painting like crazy. I got the big ugly dresser almost done. Had to sand it, prime it, and it seems to need three coats of paint to look good. I just need one more coat on the top and one side and then it should be done. Need to pick out some knobs and it will be ready to roll. I also painted most of the girls bedroom. See below for the lovely shade (aloe vera). I think it looks good. Now I just have to do the hard part...the edges. It takes such a long time. Yuck. I think Bella will really like it, can't wait until she gets home (tomorrow!).

I haven't done a bodybugg update for awhile. I had a trainer's appointment on Wednesday and ouch do I hurt today. My official weight loss is at 22 lbs. I need to stop now per myself and my trainer. We're still going to work on tightening up places. I guess I need to start eating more. Just when it was getting easy. Oh well, I'm sure it won't be too hard to increase my intake.

Funny (kind of in a scary way) Emma story. We were driving home yesterday (in my newly aquired Murano...I'll take pictures soon) and Emma out of the blue said she wanted a tongue ring?!?!!!! Where that came from I'm not sure. I think one of her favorite girls at daycare has a tongue ring as she said "Jenna has a blue one, I want a pink one". Great. My three year old wants a tongue ring. Anyway, Emma is picking up a lot of crap from daycare, kind of scares me. She is a little sponge. Thinking I need to get myself a nanny. Too bad I can't afford one. Anyone know of any newly graduated high school chick without a tongue ring who wants to come live in Iowa mainly for the experience and a little pay =) ?

Well that is all for now. Have a good day.

Another Emma picture.

I don't really have any new pictures to post. I'm saving all my layouts for MMM just in case I happen to enter. This is a photo from last week when we went to adventureland. It's not very good, but I liked Emma's smile. She was laughing so hard that she even made the grouchy frog hopper operator smile.


Looking forward to the end of this week. Bella will be back from Nebraska. She left yesterday on a previously planned trip. Not used to being away from her for so long. Don't really like it either =(.

So as far as this MMM thing goes. I have to have 4 awesome layouts....currently I have one that I'm pleased with, 2 that are okay and 4 that are barely okay. So, I'm trying to come up with something grand within the next week. Then the real problem is the assigned layout. It has to center around the theme of "celebrate life". Hmmm....Not really in the celebrating mood lately. So we'll see what I can up with for that one.

My mom is a pretty cool lady. She sends cards to everyone. I think she has about a 10000 card collection that she just opens up and will send to anyone and everyone. Anyway, she sent me a card today which was nice. Had of course a fitting saying on the front in kind of an artsy fashion....so I appreciated it in several ways. The front said. When our vision is clouded by circumstance...God sees clearly. When our understanding is shadowed by questions...God knows perfectly. When our path is shaded with uncertainty...God lead Faithfully. Anyway, thanks mom. Hope you are all having a good day.

Pictures uploaded

Here are those pictures from Adventureland. This is the fish Emma won playing the "booming" game (squirting a target with a water gun). She was so proud.

Here we are on the log ride a.k.a the rollercoaster boat. Isn't she cute? The photo is absolutely terrible...both quality and how I look, but I wanted one of her riding on it so I bit the bullet and bought one.

Went to my Mom's this weekend. Made 3 layouts while I was there. I'm still contemplating entering MMM...we'll see what I get done this week. Anyway, have a lovely Monday.

So I just saw this. This is a book that I am in. I was told that my picture and a bit of information about myself (now of course out of date)will be included. And unless something changes, each layout will be a full page. Finally something that won't be shrunken down to the size of a pinhead. I guess that is yet to be seen. The layout is about another painful situation in my life. Just look at me...the poster child for sharing your painful life in public. Kind of wierd considering that I truly have a pretty blessed life and would say that I am happy much more than not =). Anyway you can take a brief peak Here . I heard that this will be out in September/October.

Emma and I had a fabulous time yesterday at Adventureland . She loved it all. She did get a bit upset at times as many of the rides she wanted to go on....she couldn't, too short. 42" seems to be the magic height. She loved the "rollercoaster boat" or the log ride as most people call it. We rode on that thing about a thousand times. In fact we got the last ride of the day. I bought one of those overpriced poor quality photos just to document the experience. At the top of the big hill, she would let out a piercing scream (I told her she could scream if she wanted to and she took great joy in that) put her hands up and down we went. We also won a fish "booming" otherwise known as shooting a water gun at a target (it was just me against her and I "let" her win...at least that is my story). It was a fun day. I was going to post some pictures of this but blogger won't let me...will try later.

Missing Miss Bella. She is enjoying a week at Grandma's house. Will be nice to go get her tomorrow.

Thinking about trading my gigantoid too expensive SUV for something else more reasonable. I still need to be able to haul stuff (like all the fake furniture I buy from Target) and I would like 4WD so I can make it up my drive way in the snow. This is what I am thinking about. Any votes?
The murano...

The xterra...

Once again, thanks

Thanks to everyone with the kind words and emails today. It means so much to me. On to bigger and better things =).

Here is another layout from the July 3 scrappy boys kit. I took this photo at Brian and Keesha's house. The girls found a frog in the yard and were quite excited. We eventually made them let it go to prevent it from being pawed to death.

So what is making me happy today? I finally bought paint to paint the girls room. Also in the process of painting their big ugly dresser. With any luck they will have a cute room by next week. I meant to do this about a year ago...oops. This is the color. It didn't scan very well, but you can kind of get the picture. I figured you could throw the girly color of choice together with this and it would look good.

#2: Got 3 catalogs and 3 magazines in the mail today. I don't know why they keep sending me catalogs. Maybe they know how tempted I am by all of them. I rarely buy anything though.
#3: I bought this tonight at Target. Don't know why. Maybe some retail therapy? I like all the pockets. Wanted something casual to carry all my crap in. Might use it tomorrow when I take Emma to Adventureland. Bella is at Grandma's house this week being spoiled so I thought I would take Emma to ride on all the cool kiddie rides. Will probably take Bella by herself in a week or two so we can ride the roller coasters. =).
Anyway, that is all for now. Have a lovely day.

Suckiness

So I've thought a lot about the suckiness that is going on in my life right now and if I should post about it or not. Not sure how much everyone wants to know or what is appropriate in such a forum. After much thought, I have decided to say just a bit. I figure the great majority of you that are reading this have some sort of relationship with me and are going to find out anyway. The rest of you, I guess you'll just know more about me than you probably want to =). Anyway, after 12 years of marriage, my husband decided that being married to me is something he would rather not be. I have a whole range of emotions going from sadness to shock to embarrassment to complete pissed-off-dom (another word invented by me I think). I could probably vent for about 20 pages of blog, but I won't, as the mature side of me is trying to prevail through this whole thing. The closest I'll get to venting in public is to say what I find really incredibly sad about this whole thing is that the lives of my girls and I really won't change all that much except in name. That, my friends, is sad. Once again, thanks to all who have been so supportive of me and have let me vent in one way or another. My parents, Jeannette, Angela, Scrappy Emmy...you all are awesome. And if you are the praying sort....we all could use it as the future is so uncertain, scary, painful.

Anyway, onto happier things. What am I happy about? This for one....Look at my mom. Does she not look awesome? She has lost 40 plus pounds and is still going strong!

#2: My girls. They are the joy in my life and I am so thankful for them. This photo was taken almost 2 years ago when we were in Idaho. The layout was made with the July 3 Scrappy Boys kit.

#3: It is raining. We so need the rain. The crops need the rain. My grass needs the rain.
#4: This dress. I really like it. 6 months ago I would have been able to only dream about stuffing myself into this. Now 20 pounds (!) lighter it fits quite nicely. By the way, for the record, that 20 pound weight loss was done only for ME, by MY hard work and not in response to any impending doom (see above).

Alright that is all for now. Hope everyone is having a good day.

Nothing much

Here is a layout from the July 3 Scrappy boys kit. Sorry it looks cock-eyed...as usual it is nicer in person. In real life you can also see the flowers that go off of the edge on the top and bottom...those aren't really cut off. Like you care =).

Not much else to say at the moment. Have a lovely Monday.

Thanks

Another layout from the July Scrappy Giraffe kit. Emma just has this great laugh, so free and cute. Even Bella recognizes it.


I've had some major suckiness (is that a word?) going on in my life recently. So forgive me if my posts aren't overly exciting at the moment. I'll be back eventually. Thanks to all that have been so supportive of me. It means more to me than you could ever know.

Good-night.

Lots of pictures, vacation part 2

Before I begin with the pictures, another layout from the July Scrappy Giraffe Kit .


So here are some photos from our vacation at home. We were really wanting to go to the beach and although it wasn't the ocean, it was nice to sit and relax in the sand and enjoy the water (by the way, these are two pictures below, but they kind of look good together...one giant picture).



We also went hiking a bit at a nearby state park. Enjoyed walking in the creek, climbing rocks.


We then took a train ride. One word described that experience....TORTURE. They made it out to be some great scenic trip on a cool old train when in all actuality it was a ride on a train without air conditioning with windows that barely opened more than 6 inches going 5 mph on a train track that was cut through weeds and trees so that there was nothing to look at but weeds and trees that were 5 feet away from you. Did I mention it was 90 degrees outside when we went and it felt like a breath of fresh air when we got off of that stupid thing. Torture. Not going to do that again.


We went to the farmer's market again. That thing is huge. This is the puny corner of it. I don't know what that building is but thought it was kind of cool.



We got quite a bit of food....cilantro, basil, corn, beans, asparagus, cabbage, potatoes, a kohlrabi, lettuce, cookies (long gone).

Also picked up some cute dishtowels, a candle holder and a hook (to go in the girl's room)


Emma loves the capital, so on our way by it on the way home, she really wanted to stop. We stopped, walked in, looked around. They got a free capital tatoo, pencil, and coloring book. Emma was quite excited to be in the capital.


One other cute story. Friday Emma got a piece of something lodged in her foot. I was looking at it, she was very unhappy, crying, screaming. Kept yelling that she wanted a doctor to take it out, not me. Hee, hee...thought that was cute. Anyway that is all for now. Have a good 4th of July.