Another layout

It seems that when I come on here to post I develop bloggers block and can't think of the least interesting thing to say. I'm sure you have noticed. Here is another layout from my CA trip.

So here is something to comment on. How do all you scrapbookers arrange your albums? I keep going back and forth and rearranging them...then I don't like them and rearrange again. Currently I have them in the "big picture" format more by topics. But I'm just looking through them now and they aren't as fun to look at...so I'm thinking about switching them back to chronological. I can't really do separate books for the girls cause I don't have enough energy anymore to scrap 2 layouts for each occasion. So what do all of you do? Maybe to encourage participation...I'll send something nice to a randomly drawn name of those that comment. In other words, it would be nice if you commented =)...you have until Thursday.

hello again...

it's been awhile huh? Been busy I guess, not feeling like I have too much to share, blogging gets old sometimes...all leads to less frequent posts I guess. In my defense, I should say that I have been less socially retarded than usual this week and that would be another reason I'm a slacker. I attempted to create a couple of layouts this weekend. Actually printed some photos from my California trip. Here are the results of my very weak efforts....


Have another one in process that is scattered all over the floor in my green room as my desks seem to have clutter all over them. Imagine that. Well that is all for now. Hope you all have a good day. I'll try to be a better blogger this week.

Some photos

Don't know too much. Going to try to print some pictures off soon so I can do some scrapbooking. We'll see how that goes. Until then here are some pictures taken today. It was gorgeous outside...mid to upper 70s I think. Emma actually cooperated a bit and was posing...kind of obnoxiously...but posing none the less, which she has never done. Didn't realize how dirty she was until I was looking at these pictures. Ahhh...the joys of daycare in warm weather.

Bella of course is a professional poser and as always took some good pictures.

And just to prove that I have not killed Betty the crazy Idaho cat, here she is...photo taken this evening (honest).

Have a lovely day everyone =)

Betty the crazy Idaho cat

Bella brought this home from Sunday School today in her prayer journal. Completely cracked me up. Maybe I should be more careful about how I talk about Betty?

A brief recap

So to all of you waiting for a recap of my trip...here it is. Left a recently past through blizzard very early (for me) Saturday A.M. and arrived in Sunny southern CA...absolutely gorgeous weather there. After receiving my P.T. Cruiser (which we renamed Piece of Trash (P.T.) Cruiser...sorry to those to own one...didn't like it) I wandered to Laguna Beach. Very pretty as you can see in the pictures below. Basically just walked around, climbed some rocks, ate some frozen yogurt...that is about it.

Another view of the beach

A flower along the beach.

I then spent the rest of the afternoon driving up the coast, went to Newport Beach...stole some seashells for the girls. Went back to the hotel and had a nap. Was a bit tired due to the two hours of sleep the prior night (was having some concerns about flying =). Spent the evening with my lovely friend Jeannette.

Day #2. Can I first just say, that I actually ran 3 days that I was there in L.A. Went for a run outside this morning with my shorts and tshirt on and decided that it was almost too hot to run outside. What a problem to have =). Went to the The Getty Museum . Loved this place. Had beautiful gardens, a great view of Los Angeles, and of course great Art. It was so incredibly cool to look at real live famous paintings from people like Van Gogh, Degas, Monet, Cezanne, etc. It was pretty exciting (yes, I am a nerd). This was one of my favorites. There was something that was very stunning about it in real life. Don't know if you can appreciate that here.

This was a sculpture that was outside and it made me giggle. Reminded me of how I feel sometimes. Small on the top and large on the bottom =).

Went to supper that evening with my former partner Richard and Jeannette. Had mahi mahi tacos.....tasty.
Day #3
More A.M. running (miracle!). Went to the mall across the street to buy a tank top as I didn't bring enough warm weather clothes. Went to disneyland with J and her daughter. Had a lovely time. Thought this picture was pretty cute....us posing with the great Woody.

And the highlight of my disney trip....getting my picture taken with a fake captain Jack sparrow. Kind of sad when a 34 year old mom gets excited about a picture with a fake johnny depp =).

Day #4
Made the trip North to Santa Monica. Beautiful beach.

Had some awesome chicken tacos there.....best I've had, ever maybe. Rented a bicycle after lunch and rode around for an hour. Awesome bike path along the coast.

Went a couple miles south to Venice Beach. Interesting place. Seems to be a place where you could probably do about anything you desired, especially illegitimate types of things. Here is a mural that was on the wall of one of the buildings. While I was there I was bear hugged by some drunk/high/insane man. He wished me a merry christmas and happy birthday. I told him thank-you and that I had to be on my way. He was disappointed and told me to come back soon. I wasn't scared as there were about a thousand people around...more interesting than anything.

I then walked to the downtown area where they had a HUGE pedestrian mall with tons of cool shops. Could have stayed there for a long time. Finally decided to go home and experienced L.A. traffic. fun...took me over 2 hours to get back to the hotel. Could have run faster at times. Makes me appreciate my 5 minute commute =). Went to a play that night where J and her daughter were very excited to find some semi-famous dude in. I of course did not recognize him at all.
Day #5
Spent the majority of it on an airplane. That's it. My trip in brief. Have a lovely day.

Made it back...

had a wonderful time!!!! 80 degrees outside makes me one happy girl =). I will post a trip recap tomorrow evening with some photos. Have too much stuff to do right now to do it this evening. Have a good day!

Good-bye for now

Here is another layout from this past weekend. Didn't scan very well. It is not quite so washed out in real life. These photos were taken 2 years ago when we first moved back to Iowa. Time really flies. Actually the layout from the prior post also had pictures taken from 2 years ago.

Heading out bright and early to sunny California on Saturday morning, unless the weather is not cooperating. We are having a major blizzard type thing going through right now, but it should all be under control by then, hopefully. Ice and airplanes just don't mix in my mind...makes me a bit nervous. Will be back Wednesday evening. I probably won't post when I am gone unless I have free access to a computer...so until then have a lovely week!

My baby is 4

Happy Birthday to my Emma (yesterday). She turned 4. We celebrated by going to Chuck E. Cheese. We took her best friend Gracie...whose head is the dominate one in the picture, followed a close second by my head. Poor Bella and Emma kind of got pushed to the side. It was hard to get everyone to cooperate with the chuck e. cheese photo machine. We had fun, won some tickets, got some dinky prizes, ate some average pizza, ate some dora cupcakes and then went across the street and enjoyed dairy queen ice cream. We came home and Emma opened her presents. Her favorite was the barbie dress up dress and slippers.
Today I shocked her by making her get her kindergarten shots. She did so well, very brave. I told her when she got those shots we would go to Target and she could pick something out. She picked her favorite thing "lipstick" (chapstick or lipgloss) and those paper plates that have animal faces and ears. Strange child =). I got off easy.
Here is another layout I made last weekend.

Getting ready to go to CA in a few days. A little nervous about leaving the girls and flying, etc. Well, hope you are all having a lovely day.

hello

As you can see our nice weather is over....Here is the latest picture outside. That pine tree is usually more upright, but a nice coating of ice, followed by snow is weighing it down a bit. This is also a picture of my driveway....which I shovel by hand. I just tell myself that it is a good workout so I don't get too bitter about it. Luckily for me my neighbors feel sorry for me and help me out. Today my neighbor came and helped me finish the bottom of it with his tractor. Love my neighbors.

We have been a busy crafty bunch this weekend being that we were kind of iced and snowed in. Bella is busy preparing for Emma's birthday on Tuesday....

Emma created some masterpieces....


Here she made a picture of me. See those green dots in my mouth? I asked her what those were and she replied "cavities". They have been discussing dental stuff at daycare =).




And I made some layouts that weren't butt ugly...here is one of them.

Hope you all had a good weekend.

Apparently I was clueless about the book my layout was going to be in. Here is the actual one it is in. Look very closely on the front cover in the upper right hand corner. Bella made the cover! She was kind of excited!

Had a cute conversation with Emma tonight:
E: I want to watch the muppets movie.
Me: We don't have a muppets movie.
E: Gracie does. I want one.
Me: Maybe you should buy one with your birthday money.
E: No, I am a children. Children can't pay.
Me: Yes they can.
E: I don't have a credit card. Can I use your credit card?
Me: No.
E: You know a credit card?!? You need one to pay?!? (in a very snotty know it all voice)
Anyway, it made me laugh. Hope you all have a lovely weekend.

Had a layout

....but after thoroughly inspecting it, decided that it was much too ugly to put on here. Yes, I know, I have put ugly things up here before, but I guess I'm just not in the mood to share my ugly stuff tonight. Sorry.

So I wonder if Blue personality types are more common in the world...since the great majority of all *eight* of us are blue here. Probably a sample size of eight can't be applied to the rest of the world, huh? I wonder how that corresponds to the meyers-briggs personality profile thingy...anyone ever have to take that? I'm an ISFP. anyone else?

So I know there are some Grey's fans out there that read this. Totally disappointed with tonight's episode. I think it started to bother me with the great liberties they took with all the medical crap tonight. Usually I overlook that just cause I like the show a lot. But geez people, when you are dead and someone has been doing CPR and cardiopulmanary bypass on you for 3+ hours and finally you get a heartrate and 30 seconds later they are pulling your ET tube out, all the doctors and nurses leave the room just to let you spontaneously recover from your severe metabolic acidosis and hypoxic organ damage....and then you just start talking like nothing ever happened...it's pushing my medical imagination a bit. Yeah, I know she was cold and that is always helpful....but still......they could have at least left her intubated for another episode with lots of meds dripping into her, etc. So did this bother anyone else? Alright, I know I need to get a life....maybe someday I will be so lucky =). Hope you all have a wonderful Friday!

What are you?

I am blue...thought it was pretty accurate, actually. The only other thing I could have been was white. Check Here to see what you are. Leave me a comment, I'd be interested in knowing what everyone is (including all you lurkers).

BLUES are motivated by INTIMACY. They seek to genuinely connect with others, and need to be understood and appreciated. Everything they do is quality-based. They are loyal friends, employers, and employees. Whatever or whomever they commit to is their sole (and soul) focus. They love to serve and give themselves freely in order to nurture others' lives.

BLUES have distinct preferences and have the most controlling personality. Their personal code of ethics is remarkably strong and they expect others to live honest, committed lives as well. They enjoy meaningful moments in conversation as well as paying close attention to special life events (e.g. birthdays and anniversaries). BLUES are dependable, thoughtful, and analytical; but can also be self-righteous, worry-prone, and moody. They are "sainted pit-bulls" who never let go of something or someone, once they are committed. When you deal with a BLUE, be sincere and make a genuine effort to understand and appreciate them.

Understand that no two BLUES are exactly alike. Although you share the same core motivation as many others, your personality is still unique to you alone.

I'm off to enjoy my afternoon off =).

Another one

Here's a layout of my two new little nieces...they are pretty cute, huh?

Still doing my pilates, I'm enjoying it. After a week, I am alreadly noticing a difference in my flexibility. Still very inflexible, but not quite as sad as it was last week. The girls joined me tonight, which was a little distracting...Bella groaning about how hard it was, Emma yelling "look at me, mom!"...all of us piled up on one small piece of floor....fun times. I came to the conclusion today that I needed to end my 2.5 month old cookie/dessert/candy binge. It is starting to catch up with me. Not sure why I decided that it was a good idea to begin in the first place, oh well. Back to the watching what I eat fun-ness again. It was fun while it lasted =). Anyway, have a lovely day.

Have a good monday =)

Live a carefree life....be happy.

Some layouts.....

But they are not mine. I seem to have no time this week for some reason. Hopefully, I will get some time to make something this weekend. In the meantime, the girls made some pages tonight. Here they are in the beginning stages....

Here is Bella's finished product:

And Emma's:

Hope you enjoy them.

As promised

Well, at least I have a picture tonight. This is my little Emma this morning before we left for the day. She is growing up so quickly. Hard to believe she will be 4 in a few weeks.

I did a little of this tonight. Wow....pretty good. There are 5 10 minute segments that you can pick and choose from or do them all. The total body blast segment actually is really that...and I consider myself in fairly good shape. It was good, liked it. Also did the stretching one...which is the reason I bought it in the first place. I am incredibly inflexible, always have been. I have always hated stretching, don't know why, but I have. Trying to work on that. I also own the 10 minute solution kickbox workout too. It is a good one also. You can buy them at my all time favorite store...Target. Or look it up on amazon, there are a bunch of them you can get.

Sorry there is no layout tonight, I'll try to make something tomorrow =). Have a good day.

I promise....

to post a real post tomorrow, maybe a picture or a layout or something. I have just been overwhelmingly busy. VERY, VERY busy at work...which I can't tell you happy that makes me =). Work has also been a bit stressful from a personal standpoint. A few posts down I talked about my nurse's husband. Unfortunately, this has not been a happy ending. He passed away over the weekend. Very very sad. What a completely freaky, terrible accident. So with that, I will end for today. More later.

What do you think?

Should I turn up the heat?

Scanning 101

I need help scanning...I am apparently not too good at it. Poor Emma....her eyeballs are way off. And sorry to my SIL too....her eyes aren't like that in real life. Something that would scan a 12x12 page sure would be nice =). Don't know too much, just wanted to post this layout. Have a good one.

Happy weekend

Another weekend gone...that sucks. I really need some more time off. I am actually going to get a few days off in another month. I actually did buy a ticket to CA and am going to go for 5 days...by myself (!!). My ticket is non-refundable so I guess I'm stuck going =). Going to see my Idaho friends. Looking forward to that (except the plane ride). Does anyone have this book yet? I *think* I'm supposed to have a layout in it, just wondering if it made it in.

This is the one that is supposed to be in it. It is pretty old by now, probably a couple years since I made it.

In other very serious news, I received a call earlier this evening from my office manager that my nurse's husband fell down the stairs and is in the ICU with major brain injuries. Don't really know much else than that, but if you are the praying type, they could use yours.
Thanks to the new commenters, I appreciate them all =). Have a good day.