Falling Back Into My Old Habits . . .

of not blogging that is! Sorry about that. No excuse.

If you all don't mind, I would like to go back to my post on February 22nd. Guess what I forgot to post about? No, it wasn't the 28th anniversay of the USA hockey team's victory over Russia, even though that did happen on February 22, 1980 too, but it was Kate's 28th birthday! Can't believe my 'baby' is acutally 28! Where has the time flown? Even though this layout is from last year . . . . Happy Birthday Kate!

Speaking of Kate, she drove into town on Saturday and surprised Mark and I with a visit. Leslie was also in along with Aiden and we all went to Ruby Tuesday for lunch. Loving their mini Ruby burgers! Ordered those along with the salad bar. However, don't get the strawberry lemonade . . . . didn't care for it at all. Definitely not with the $3.29 price tag. It was great sitting with the girls and enjoying a meal out . . . just like old times!

Well, the past 2 days school has been canceled due to snow. I bet we got over 5 inches of snow Monday night and early Tuesday. And it looks like we might have gotten another 3 inches last night. Probably our biggest snow storm of the winter season. When is this going to stop? I am tired of it already!

Spent a good part of yesterday scrapping and getting caught up on programs I have recorded on my DVR. Made this layout for Lifetime Moments weekly sketch chall-enge. Very happy with the final product. Picture was taken a couple of weeks ago when we all went to Kate and Jaime's to celebrate Kate and my birthdays. The picture is a bit out of focus but I absolutely love the look on Aiden's face. Isn't he the coolest kid ever?

Guess that is about it for today . . . Have a great day everyone!

Friday Morning and . . .

we are currently on a two hour delay!! Right on! Since I took my car into the shop today and it is Mark's Friday off, he was going to have to drive me into work this morning. Looks like he has a slight reprieve. Kind of have my fingers crossed for a cancellation today. It has been a rough week with disciplines and all.

Thought I would show off a couple more of my creations this past weekend. Both of these layouts are once again for my Summer 2007 album. This one is one of my favorites of late. It's a layout about all the different blueberry this and that you find in Maine. Cathe is holding up a blueberry martini, which she loved, and the blueberry pie we ate while in Freeport was to die for. As far as the actual layout goes, got the idea for all the tags along the side from a layout by Renee Camacho I found in the AL Designing with Color idea book. The papers are all from the current kit from Little Red Scrapbook that I have received. At first I wasn't real happy with what was sent this month and now I am loving the kit. This layout was the second time I have used these papers in a weekend.

Another layout I got finished was this one about the bed and breakfast we stayed in while in South-west Harbor, The Kingsleigh Inn. It is the same place Mark and I stayed in while in Maine during the summer of 2006. Love this place! In fact I would love to swing a stay there sometime this year too, but I don't think it is going to work out. Layout inspired by a Lisa McGarvey layout I found in the Garden at 2Peas.

Guess that is about it for this morning. Think I'll pick up my scrap area . . . looks like a bomb went off in here. Have a great Friday everyone!

Has It Been Four Days . . .

since I last said "hi" to everyone? Don't know where the time has flown . . . . What's so funny is that there really hasn't been a whole lot going on lately . . . . Just kind of been in a funky mood I guess.

First off, let me say I LOVED the finish of the Daytona 500 . . . . Truly happy to see Ryan Newman win the race! Where in the heck did he come from? Sorry Kyle Busch . . . . Remember the fastest car doesn't always win the race. Talk about teamwork! Maybe folks will keep off Kurt's back for a week or two. He exemplified teamwork to the nth degree.

Even though I said I was going to scrap all weekend, and in the technical sense I did, I sure didn't get a whole lot done. Seems like all I did was 'stare' a lot. Here is one of my favorites from the weekend. I took this picture of Logan and Aiden at our January Christmas gift exchange with the boys down at Kate and Jamie's. Played with it a little using PhotoShop Elements, enlarged, and printed it out here at home. Let me tell you, our new printer rocks when it comes to printing black and white! No more red or green tints with my black and whites. Found the idea for this layout over the weekend as I purged some of my old scrapbook magazines. It was a layout by Candace Leonard in the April 2007 Scrapbooks Etc.

Mark and I are having a mini-competition to see who walks the most on the treadmill in a week. Loser has to do the dishes, loading and unloading the dishwasher, for a month. Right now I am ahead by 3 minutes. I figure even if I lose, I really won't be doing any more than I already do, since I do the dishes most of the time anyway, but if I win . . . . fab-u-lous!

Well, I think I will start thinking about the upcoming day . . . . Have a meeting over at the county office after school and then I need to drop my car off at our local car fix-it place so they can check out a small transmission leak tomorrow. Hope it is nothing major. Keeping my fingers crossed. Have a great day everyone!

Bob and Sheri . . .

Most mornings as I get ready for work and drive into work, I listen to the radio. It used to be that I listened to WJR out of Detroit, but for at least 10 years now, the program I listen to is the Bob & Sheri show. Bob & Sheri orginates out of the Charlotte, NC area and I have come to view our time together each morning as the perfect way to start my day.

I have been there as Sheri got engaged in Greece, married, became first a step-mom to Eric and then an actual mom to two little girls, wrote two books, and now is in the midst of a huge home improvement project. I have been there to listen to stories from her early childhood, which by the way was dysfunctional to say the least; hear about the trials and tribulations of being a working mom; and laugh out loud at the stories about her 'Grandma Black Hair'. I have been there as Bob has raised three children, felt the stress of a marriage coming to an end, and listened to his love for Maine and lobster. I love "Bob's Rules", the notion of the 'cone of safety', and how they have become a small part of my everyday life. I find it funny just how much Bob and Sheri feel just like old friends that you talk to constantly and know so much about, but they know nothing about me.

Well yesterday, I got to meet Bob and Sheri! The local radio station, 107.1, brought them in for a meet and greet/book signing. Leslie and I went up to the mall and stood in line for close to an hour to be able to meet them. Loved it! Thanks Bob and Sheri for taking the time to spend a minute or two with us and learn a little bit about my life!

Scrapped some yester-day, but not as much as I had hoped. Finally got this layout done about our after-Christmas celebration with the boys. I am totally in love with the pictures on the page, but I keep feeling like it needs a little bit of something more. Finally gave up trying to tweak it . . . done is done! Actually used my new printer to add the journaling directly onto the page. Now, at least I can tell Mark that I have printed on one 12x12 layout.

Watched Tony Stewart drive to a win in the Nationwide series race down in Daytona Saturday afternoon. Hey by the way, today is the Daytona 500!!! Let the NASCAR season begin!!!

Met Leslie, Christopher, and Aiden for dinner in Wapak last night. It was a pleasant surprise that we hadn't planned on. I swear, Aiden ate more of my fries than I did! Actually I should say that he handled more of my fries than I did, since 90% of what he ate actually ended up on the floor and not in his mouth!

42 degrees and rainy here right now. Well folks, I am out of here . . . . Have a marvelous day!

Purchases vs. Usage . . .

Over on the Lifetime Moments board, Susan came up with an idea to keep track of products used for scrapbooking projects, versus products purchased. Thought I would give it a try, even though looking at my expenditures vs. usage scares the crap out of me! So I have started a second blog, Using Up My Stash!, to keep an accountability record of my scrapbooking purchases vs. my usage . . . Wish me luck!

Beat it out of the door after work today so I could get home to watch the second race for qualifying spots in Sunday's Daytona 500. Dale, Jr. won the first race and Kenny Wallace raced his way into the race. Since Kurt Busch had mechanical problems and only ran 6 laps of the first race, he will use the champion provisional so that he can race this weekend. Unfortunately, this means that Dale Jarrett must race his way into to the Daytona 500 or else he will be sitting home this weekend. Here's hoping that he can do it . . .

Hope everyone is having a great Valentine's Day . . . . Mark and I will be heading to Ike's for dinner and then maybe back home to scrap a little. Also plan on scrapping the weekend away. Other than Leslie and I heading up to the Lima Mall to meet Bob and Sheri from the Bob and Sheri radio show we both listen to, I don't have any other big plans. Need to start working on my IEPs this weekend, since my case conferences start next week, but that is about it for school type work. Daytona 500 will take up all day Sunday . . . plenty of time to scrap while watching TV. Lifetime Moments is having an on-line extreme crop this weekend . . . want to take full advantage of the challenges they will post. Can't wait!

Sun was out and shining a good part of the day today, melting the snow away! Have a great evening everyone!

Been in Kind of a Funky Mood . . .

of late, so sorry that I haven't blogged since Sunday. Good time was had by all down in Dublin celebrating Kate's and my birthday Sunday afternoon. Kate made 'breakfast' for dinner . . . loved it! We had Belgian waffles, scrambled eggs with ham and cheese, bacon, and orange juice. Perfect way to celebrate my birthday! Received the book "I Feel Bad About My Neck and Other Thoughts on Being a Woman" by Nora Ephron, from Kate. Nora wrote some well-known screenplays like "When Harry Met Sally", "Sleepless in Seattle", and "You've Got Mail". The book is her view on life as a nearing 60 woman in today's world. Should be a good read and it will probably hit home more than I would like it to. Leslie gave me some Shaklee 'green' cleaning supplies that we had both seen on Oprah recently. Already tried them out, and they work great!

Yesterday was my "12 on 12" day, so here are my pictures for the day . . . Just like last month, the pictures include (L to R, top to bottom):

1. time I got up Tuesday morning . . . I was hoping for a delay or cancellation but everything ran on time and I 'slid' into work
2. Mark's and my lunches already to be packed in our lunch bags
3. my new Shaklee 'green' cleaning supplies
4. my odometer . . . 97, 017 this month which means I drove 1313 miles in the past month
5. my desk top first thing in morning . . . you should have seen it by the end of the day!
6. my class working on a properties of matter activity . . . note my new "Calm" poster in the background
7. looking down a book shelf in the library at school
8. our new picture for our dining room wall, newly framed and waiting to be hung . . . notice the lack of a dining room table . . . in being refinished again because last year's refinishing wasn't quite working out
9. drank 2 cans of Pepsi yesterday . . . here's one of the cans sitting on my desk in the den at home
10. my friend, Julie, as I looked through her classroom window as she worked on her alternative assessments
11. part of the Vera Bradley display at The Greenery . . . see Cathe, I finally went in to check out the new patterns for summer
12. yesterday's gas prices as seen on my way home from work . . . $3.02 per galloon

Well that is about it for this month's 12 on 12 . . . Have to admit that my battery died on my camera yesterday, so a couple of these pictures were actually taken today . . . trying not to let that bother me too much . . .

Sitting here watching American Idol . . . they are getting the contestants down to the final 24 tonight. Next week the voting by the public begins . . . looks like it will be a great season! One of the final 24 is a student at high school in the district I work in, Garrett Haley. Check out his video here . . . Hey, he also plays soccer . . . Not too bad! Should be fun watching how he does . . .

Well folks, that is about it for tonight. Working on my Ten on Tuesday list . . . I'll post it tomorrow. Have a great evening everyone!

Thunder, Lightening, Snow, and Rain . . .

Couldn't believe it last night . . . All the thunder and lightening, rain, and then snow! Woke up this morning to our driveway looking like a skating rink. With temperatures right around 20 degrees at the moment, at least it isn't as cold as they had said it would be today. Here's hoping it stays that way!

Scrapping wise, yesterday was very productive! Sat and watched Speed TV most of the day, with all their Bud Shootout coverage, watched the race last night, and scrapped the day away. First layout that I got done was this one for my 2007 Summer album. Picture was taken when we had lunch at our local burger place, Kewpee, when Cathe was in town. The layout was a 'lift' of a Shannon Tidwell layout in the new 2008 KI Idea Planner. Actually forgot that I had preordered this planner and was pleasantly surprised to receive it in the mail on Friday. Second time I have used black as my background color this month . . . sure brings out the colors in a photo.

The second layout I completed was this one of Aiden. The picture was taken when we celebrated Christmas with the boys down in Columbus in mid-January. Loved all the bright colors in the picture and wanted to showcase Mr. Cutie Botootie in a layout. Went back through my stash of patterned papers and found these papers and cardstock from the June 2007 Lifetime Moments kit I receive. The layout was also inspried by one of Miranda's design ideas for that month. Loving all the buttons and Doodlebug gems on this one!

Very happy with the outcome of the Bud Shootout last night. Glad to see Dale, Jr. win the race. Mikey came in 11th and D.J. came in 13th. Not a bad showing considering how awful the year was last season for Michael Waltrip Racing. 7 days until the Daytona 500 . . . Let the NASCAR season begin!!

Well folks, have to start getting it together for the day. Heading down to Kate's to celebrate February birthdays this afternoon. Meeting Leslie, Chris, and Aiden in Bellefontaine around noon and then we will ride down together. Need to still wrap Kate's gift and pull myself together. Maybe I will even walk on the treadmill . . . .

Have a great Sunday everyone!

Saturday Morning and the Arctic Cold Front . . .

is on its way! UGH!! They are calling for a high of 9 degrees tomorrow and winds gusting to 40 mph. Sound like a pleasant day, huh? I don't think so.

Sitting here getting ready to scrap the day away. Tomorrow we are heading down to Dublin to celebrate February birthdays. Have to be at Kate's by 1 PM, so if I am going to get anything scrapped this weekend, today is pretty much my day to get things done. First of all, I need to get my scrap area cleared up and then let the fun begin!

After over two months of no NASCAR races, tonight is the official start of the 2008 season. NASCAR RaceDay starts at 6 PM and the green flag for the Bud Shootout waves at 8:30 PM. Even though it is one of the two non-point races of the season, it officially marks the end of what Mark and I call "The Dark Time". Can't wait to get the season going! And it's only 36 days until we are sitting at Bristol Motor Speedway watching the Food City 400!

Off to finish picking up and then making a mess again while I scrap . . . Have a great Saturday folks!

Thursday Morning and Another Delay . . .

but who's complaining . . . not this teacher! More rain last night, a little bit of snow, and icy conditions this morning. As much as I enjoy the delays, I have to admit that I hate weather like this. Warm one day, freezing the next . . . just give me a huge snow fall, get the roads cleared off, and I'm good to go. Hate, hate, all this ice and slipping and sliding.

Another layout from my Summer 2007 album. Picture was taken out in California when I spent the weekend in San Clemente. My sister Judith was getting ready to take a swim in the ocean and was fooling around before she headed down to the beach. Used some really old KI papers again on this layout from the Collection III Together line. Love going back into my stash of papers and pulling something out to use!

Since I didn't post on Tuesday this week thought I would do my Ten on Tuesday today. The theme this week is "10 Things You Can Do Instead of Watching TV" . . .

1. Scrapbook
2. Watch DVDs . . . usually my favorites, over and over again
3. Exercise . . . okay you can stop laughing!
4. Read . . . currently reading "A Thousand Splendid Suns" which I am totally enjoying
5. Surf the net . . . like I don't do enough of that already
6. Scrapbook
7. Go to bed early
8. Keep up with the laundry . . . something I usually let way too out of control
9. Organize and reorganize my scrapbook supplies
10. Hey, did I say scrapbook?

Well there you go . . . Still on a two hour delay and I need to start thinking about getting ready for work. Have a great day everyone!

Home From the Big City . . .

Busy two days down in Columbus. Rained all the way down and rained all the way home today. I couldn't believe all the flooding we saw on the way home, especially around the Indian Lake area. Totally amazing! Good to be back home. Enjoyed the sessions I took part in, especially the memory and music ones. Great speakers with a ton of motivational ideas. The one great thing about this conference is definitely the way the attendees are treated. Each day starts with a marvelous continental breakfast and at lunch we served a sit down, white table cloth and napkins lunch. Yesterday it was a chicken and rice dish, today it was lasagna, and the desserts are to die for! Between each session is at least a 30 minute break, so you never feel rushed. Enjoyed staying at the Hilton and we all went to Cap City Fine Diner for dinner. Needless to say, a good time was had by all!

So look at what came in the mail today . . . our tickets to the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speed-way on March 16. My brother, Dick, is going with Mark and I . . . should be a good time. This will be Dale Jarrett's last official NASCAR points race . . . hence the reason for our trip to the race. Now all I need to do is put in for my personal day as soon as I get to work tomorrow. Should be a fun time, especially since I will be sharing this time with Dick . . . he's a NASCAR virgin!

Well folks, I am dead tired . . . Think I'll be heading off to bed shortly. Stay dry and have a great evening!

I Have Now Officially Entered . . .

my 60th year! It is so hard to believe that I will actually be 60 on my next birthday! Maybe I will just hang around 59 for a couple of years. What do you think? Low key kind of birthday. Mark and I went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and I am currently doing laundry. A women's work is never done, right? Still need to run the dishwasher too.

Busy, busy day at work today. Three of my students were are a 2 hour delay due to fog, so things really didn't get rolling until almost 10 AM. Makes for a quick and busy day. Spent a good part of the day getting things together for my sub for the next two days. Picking my boss, Sherri, up at 5:45 AM and we will be heading down to Columbus for our conference. It will be good to be away, mingling with other special ed teachers, and learning new techniques to hopefully engage our students more. Going to take Sherri to a couple of my favorite scrapbook spots tomorrow after the conference ends for the day and then meeting up with some of the teachers from Elida, who are also attending the conference, for dinner. Should be a good time!

Watched the entire Super Bowl game last night. I think it was the first time in years I have actually watched the entire game. Loved the outcome! Scrapped the entire time the game was on and got this layout completed for my 2007 Summer album. Used this layout by Miranda, a design team member at Lifetime Moments, as my inspiration. The Love, Elsie Roxie paper and epoxy sticker I used were a near perfect match for the top Cathe had on in the picture. Aren't the buttons sewn on the heart the cutest touch? Love, love all the little touches Miranda adds to her layouts! Wish I could take credit for the design.

Since I am going to be gone the next couple of days I am not to sure if I will be able to post at all tomorrow. I'll try but doubt if I will have access to a computer. I'll be back early Wednesday evening, so I will get with you all then. Have a great upcoming two days!

Super Bowl Sunday . . .

and hoping the New York Giants can win tonight. Guess we will just have to wait and see. Saw two Super Bowl ads already today that simply made me laugh out loud. One was earlier in the day during the pregame and starred Ben Roethlisberger singing a very poor rendition of the Pina Colada song . . . too too funny. The other was a Pepsi Max commercial where some guy is whacked to the ground by a swing . . . basically a dumb commercial but that one part was funny in a sick sort of way.

Didn't get much scrapped today but I did get this layout done yester-day. Every month I want to do a layout with the 12 pictures I take on the 12th of the month and this is my January layout. Found the idea for this layout by Tracy Miller in the Two Peas Creative Garden. Love the straight line design. Also got most of my pictures that I want to use on layouts for January printed today. Did some here at home but sent most of them to Walgreens. Also apent some time playing around with my new iPhone getting about 40 of my layouts saved on my phone so I can look at them whenever I want. Most of them are from my Summer 2007 album. I am really really loving this album and it will be fun to have them all in one place to look at whenever I want to.

Spent a good part of the day writing two quizzes and a test for my kids to take at school while I am gone Tuesday and Wednesday. Hopefully I can get everything together for the sub by the time I leave tomorrow. I have a 4 o'clock hair cut and would hate to have to go back to school to finish up if I can't wrap it all up by then. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Hope you all had a pleasant weekend. Looks like the next couple of days the temperature might get up into the 50s . . . here's hoping they do. Off to walk the treadmill while I watch the halftime show . . . Have a great evening everyone!

So Picture This . . .

Yesterday morning 10:55 AM, 7:55 AM PST. I am logged into the Reserve America website. At that exact same time, Cathe is sitting at home in California, logged into the same website on 2 different computers. Each of the computers is set up to try to reserve a cottage at the Crystal Cove State Park in Laguna Beach for this coming August. At actually 11 AM, I hit the "reserve this site button" and Cathe does the same at her end. The "checking availability" bar starts working and we patiently wait . . . . and wait . . . . and wait. Then in flash we both get . . . . . NOT AVAILABLE! Can you believe it? Not one stinking cottage was available! The entire month of August was sold out in under 1 minute . . . . Those must be some amazing cottages! So it looks like it is on to Plan B for our summer getaway . . . .

Actually ended up spending the day in my pjs yesterday. Started feeling a bit grody around 1PM, so I did take a shower, but it was back in my jammies for the remainder of the day. Loved, loved it! Looks like we missed the bullet on our winter storm yesterday. From what I can tell, it tracked a bit west of us. We got rain, some ice, and just a dusting of snow. Maybe we could have gone to school after all, but this teacher is not complaining . . . Loved my snow day!!

Scrapped the day away. Got this layout done for my Summer 2007 album yester-day morning. It is a picture of Aiden that Leslie took when we were in the Outer Banks last summer. They brought his automatic swing with them and Aiden would sleep in the swing all the time. Don't know exactly who put the sun glasses on him, but isn't it an adorable picture! Got my inspiration for the layout from a sketch by Shimelle Laine I found on line on the Pencil Lines blog. Great place for ideas . . . check it out.

Guess that is just about it for this morning. Not much on the schedule today. Maybe I'll scrapbook . . . . Sounds like a plan! Have a great day everyone!

Sitting Here Waiting . . .

for Elida school to finally do something about the "weather" that is expected in the area this morning. We were supposed to get 1 - 3 inches of snow last night but it looks like that didn't happen. Guess it is pretty icy out there instead. The Weather Channel says that there is still more ice and snow on the way . . . come on Elida, decide what to do! Just called Leslie because Shawnee is on a 2-hour delay. . . .

Right on . . . we just canceled!! It has been a rough week at school. I am having a lot of issues with one of my students . . . definitely need the break. Next week I am in Columbus for two days, so that will make for a nice little respite. Then for the next two weeks we only have 4 days with students each week . . . . Monday February 11 is a teacher in-service day and Monday February 18 is President's Day! February is definitely shaping up into a great month . . . Oh, the life of a teacher!

Just did my weekly weigh-in for our biggest loser contest at school . . . another 2 pounds lost. I've been drinking too much Pepsi this week, especially at work . . . seems to go hand-in-hand with behavior issues in the classroom . . . so seeing a loss this week was a pleasant surprise. I still have a ton of weight to lose but 2 pounds a week is my goal.

This morning at 8AM PST, my sister Cathe is going to attempt to reservation a cottage at Crystal Cove State Park in Laguna Beach for this coming August. Hoping that she is able to reserve one because then Leslie and Aiden, Kate, and I will hopefully fly out for an "all-girl" getaway along with my sister Judy. These cabins are right on the ocean and you can only reserve them 6 months in advance . . . August goes on sale today . . . keeping my fingers crossed.

Well I'm off to plan my day . . . Let's see, I think I will scrap, scrap, and scrap some more! Have a great day everyone!