Look What Came to Live at My House Yesterday . . . .

Can you believe it . . . . an iPhone! I am in heaven!! I can't believe I actually own one!! When they first came out I thought I might like one. Then the idea of switching mobile carriers stopped me . . . I've been with Alltel since day one of cell phone ownership. Just before Christmas I got to hold one in my hot little hands and I was blown away by the color it displayed. Finally decided I wanted one when I found out that my Google calendar could be synced to the iPhone but the price of the phone was stopping me. Anyway, Mark surprised me with one for my birthday!! It is the coolest device and does so, so many neat things. Only problem right now is that I have to have a temporary cell phone number until the end of February when I can port my old number over to AT&T. Oh the trials and tribulations of owning an iPhone!

Here is another layout from my Summer 2007 album I am currently working on. Picture was taken last summer when Kate received some belated birthday gifts from my sister Cathe. The items are part of the new Vera Bradley leather line and coordinate perfectly with Kate's Vera Bradley bags. This layout was inspired by a Mellette Berezoski that Lori had ripped out of an old scrapbooking magazine . . . I love the little details that Mellette always adds to her layouts. Even made my own transparency on this layout . . . wanted to use the definition for happy on the layout and printed it out on a transparency so it could cover both the photo and some cardstock.

Off to play with my new toy . . . I'll post more about this wonderful device tomorrow. Have a fabulous Saturday . . . I plan on it!

Sad Sad Day in the Carpenter Household . . .

Now it's nothing earth shattering but sad nonetheless . . . . Today I gave up my cleaning lady. Okay, stop laughing but it is one of those luxuries that I have enjoyed the past 3 years. Some known but unplanned for bills have popped up . . . can we say real estate taxes . . . and when looking into a savings plan to make up our short-fall, I bravely chose to give up my bi-weekly cleaning lady. Don't want to give up my nail appointments and heaven forbid you touch my scrapping money, so Pat had to go. Now all I need to do is make sure Mark and I set aside time every two weeks to do the cleaning that Pat used to do. Really shouldn't be all that hard but a challenge anyway. Wish us luck!

Thought I would share another layout from my Summer 2007 album. Mark took this picture of me while we were visiting in the Outer Banks in June. The idea for this layout came from this layout by Lisa McGarvey. Really, really like how she adds all these little touches to her layouts.

Guess that is about it from here in Lima. Looks like the temperatures should be in the low single digits tomorrow morning . . . BRRRRRRRRR! We've been freezing in my room this week, so tomorrow should be no different. Have a great evening everyone and stay warm!

Back to the Grind . . .

Well my big scrapping weekend is officially over . . . bummed but ready to get back to the routine. I am off again in 2 short weeks . . . heading down to Columbus for a special ed conference for two days. I will be staying at the Hilton at Easton so I definitely see some more scrapping shopping in my future!

Thought I would show you one more layout I finished up on Sunday. This is a picture of Mark's sister Lynne and Aiden which was taken when we were vacationing in the Outer Banks this past June. Loving all the buttons I used as a "frame" and the Heidi Swapp ghost hearts on the bottom left of the photo. Once again I used a Becky Fleck sketch as my design inspiration for the layout.

Today's Ten On Tuesday is "Ten Things That Were Better "Way Back When", so here goes . . . .

1. First and foremost . . . the price of gas!


2. I probably shouldn't bring this up and I am working on correcting the situation but . . . my weight.


3. Respect in the classroom . . . as a teacher you know I had to add this one in.


4. Paparazzi and the media attention paid to the rich and famous. . . I am sick and tired of hearing about the trials and tribulations of stars and other famous people as they screw up their $100,000,000 lives . . . take that Brittney Spears and Paris Hilton!


5. The presidential election process . . . I actually remember when the campaigning didn't actually start until after Labor Day during an election year!


6. Major League Baseball . . . clean-up the record books and get rid of the steroid driven records set over the past 10 or 12 years!


7. The Today Show . . . not into Meredith Vieira at all . . . take me back to the days for Katie Couric or maybe even Jane Pauley and Tom Brokaw.
8. Customer service . . . I just hate having to call some business now and you have to go through 10 million prompts to end up getting to the wrong person and they really don't seem to give a darn what your problem is anyway.
9. Kids playing outside . . . I remember many a night staying outside until the last possible minute playing ball or some other group activity with the neighborhood kids.
10. Attire . . . I am definitely tired of looking at some teenage girl's boobies. Where are the days when attire was by far more modest and not so sex driven.

There you go . . . made it to ten this week! Gotta get moving . . . lots to do at school today. Looks like our weather this morning is going downhill quickly . . . schools are starting to call in 2 hour delays . . . keep your fingers crossed that we are delayed! Have a great Tuesday everyone!

Trying to Go Green . . .

Mark has started our household on a recycling program. He ordered four of these really nice recycling containers from Plow & Hearth and they arrived just before Christmas. He set them up just outside the laundry room door in the garage and has done all this research on-line as to what materials are recyclable and how we should actually be recycling. So to also get into the "green" mode, I bought these shopping bags from reusablebags.com in the paper bag brown color. For the last week I have carried them around in the backseat of my car and always seemed to forget to carry them into the grocery store with me. Well, tonight I didn't forget and used them for the first time! I'll keep you posted on our going green progress.

Here is another layout I did when I cropped with Lori in Columbus this past weekend. It is actually a scraplift of a layout I found on-line at Becky Fleck's Page Maps website. Totally love the scalloped paper and buttons! In fact, I like the design so much I actually used it for this layout too. The actual Chatterbox papers I used in each layout came from different room collections, so the layouts are not actually identical. Sick, aren't I?

Well I guess that is about it for today. Wrote an IEP tonight for a 10:00 AM meeting I have in the morning for another new student. Don't really know if he is suited for my program at Elida . . . we'll have to discuss it more tomorrow when we meet. Hope you all had a great Monday . . . loved having the day off today! Have a great evening!

Home Again, Home Again . . .

Got back from Columbus and my scrapping weekend around 1:30 this afternoon. Ended up getting 6 layouts completed, so for me it was a pretty productive weekend. Real happy with what I got done including this layout I did with pictures I took at the Sawdust Festival in Laguna Beach this past summer. Definitely not the colors I normally gravitate to, but I am quite pleased with the final rendition. Started out matting the pictures in a rust color . . . like you see in the brown patterned paper . . . but it just was not doing anything for me. Lori convinced me to switch over to the deep maroon/red color and it was the perfect fix!

Also did this layout about Cathe's and my trip to Maine in August. Love the tags on the left hand side of the layout. Used some older KI patterned papers from the Journey collection in 2004 and cardstock tags from Earth collection back in 2005.

Spent a good part of the afternoon scanning and posting some layouts for the Lifetime Moments WinterFest. Also watched to San Diego Chargers lose to the New England Patriots. Bummer . . . Right now the Packers/Giants game is headed into overtime. Oh my God, does it look cold in Green Bay. Current -4 degrees with a wind chill of -24 degrees. Keeping my fingers crossed that the Packers can pull this off.

Keep warm everyone . . . It's 8 degrees outside here in Lima at the moment. Thank goodness I don't have to worry about getting up tomorrow morning. Have great evening!

7 Minutes to Midnight . . .

and can you believe I am still up! Productive day scrapping today. Actually got 3 layouts totally completed and one about 60% finished. Really like what I got done. Not much else going on . . . I'll try to post again tomorrow. Hope Friday was a great day for you!

T-Minus 24 Hours and Counting . . .

until I am loading the car up for Columbus!! Long day ahead of me today but I am sure it will fly by. Got zero preplanning done last night . . . I think I was asleep by 8:30 PM and I didn't wake-up until 4:45 AM this morning! Have a few more layouts I have ideas swimming around in my head for, so hopefully I will get those put together tonight.

Last night all my plans for preplanning pretty much went flying out of the door when Mark got home and told me that the battery place closed at 5:30. I have noticed over the past month or so that my car was not starting as 'perky' as it had in the past. Then on Tuesday, after it sat out in 17 degree weather all day at work, it really moaned and groaned to start. So, since the battery is just about 5 years old and the prospect of having to call AAA this weekend, after my car sits out in typical January weather all weekend didn't really excite me, I decided it was time to replace the battery. So at 5 o'clock we quickly headed out to the Battery Warehouse. By 5:45 PM, my new battery was installed, my terminals had been cleaned, and my checking account was $67 lighter!

We decided to go to RubyTuesday for dinner . . . hadn't been there in a while. Mark and I split an order of their Ruby Minis hamburgers and a spinach and artichoke appetizer . . . I was very pleasantly surprised how good the hamburgers were! We also split a strawberry cream puff for dessert, which was very tasty but definitely not the healthiest thing to eat. As a side note . . . our server reminded me of Chris Daughtry but with a full head of hair . . . left him a decent tip too.

Well folks, I need to get some photos sent off to Walgreens so I can pick them up after work. Busy, busy at work today getting everything ready for my day off tomorrow, but it is worth it!! I'll try to post while I am in Columbus . . . if not I will catch you on Sunday for sure . . . . have a great Thursday!

Getting Ready for My Big Weekend . . .

Spent a good part of last night preplanning for my scrapping weekend with Lori . . . only one more day of work . . . can't get here fast enough!! My IEP meeting for tomorrow has been postponed . . . very happy about that . . . think I'll head to bed early.

Really thought and thought about yesterday's Ten on Tuesday . . . couldn't come up with anything else . . . sorry.

Guess that is about all I have to say today . . . . have a great evening!

Ten on Tuesday: 10 Movies That Disappointed Me . . .

For this week's list I will do my best to get to ten, but I tend not to watch movies that I think I won't like. So here goes . . . .

1. Sound of Music - Don't know what it was about this movie . . . maybe all the hype . . . maybe so many people saying that they loved it, but I definitely was disappointed when I saw it. Don't get me wrong, I liked the movie but I sure didn't love it.
2. Gone with the Wind - My mom always said that this was one of her favorite movies and how I had wished I would have been able to see it. Then it was re-released when I was maybe in 5th or 6th grade and I was so bored as I sat watching it in the movie theatre one Saturday afternoon.
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey - I remember going to see this with Mark, the first year we were dating, and I just didn't get the point of the movie.
4. Any of the Star Wars movies after the first one - Loved the first installment . . . so unique and innovative for the time. All the rest seemed to be the same story with a little more elaborate special effects.

Gotta get going this morning . . . Come back later . . . I will think on this today. Have a great Tuesday!

What a Pleasant Surprise . . .

when I walked into work this morning and who should be walking down the hall toward my room but . . . . . . . . Marie! I could not believe it, but she was in to sub for my aide, Joyce today! For those of you who might not know it, but Marie was my aide for 5 and a half years. She officially "retired" at the end of the 2005-2006 school year when, due to class sizes and student realignments, we found out I was no longer going to have an aide. So instead of being reassigned, Marie retired. My students must have thought we were crazy, but all we did was talk and laugh all day . . . it was great getting all caught up on what has been happening in her life over the past 18 months. Oh my God, was it fabulous to have her back! I felt like she had never left. All seemed right with the world! I already have her scheduled to come in for another day on January 25th . . . Maybe we won't be talking so much that day . . . Fat chance!

Didn't get any more preplann-ing done yester-day, but I did get this layout done for my Summer 2007 album. It was inspired by a layout Susan at Lifetime Moments did for last Thursday's newsletter. Really in the mood to scrap this week but I know that I need to save my creating for my weekend at Archiver's. Only three more days of work and then I am out of here! Already starting the countdown!

Glad to see the San Diego Chargers win yesterday. My brother, Dick, was ecstatic! Being that he is a Chargers fan, living and working in Indianapolis, should have been a fun day for him at work today! Even though it might seem highly unlikely, I would love to see San Diego go all the way to the Super Bowl. Their next opponent is New England and Tom Brady . . . I'm not going to hold my breath. Not surprised that Dallas lost to the Giants.

Hope everyone had a fabulous Monday. Have a great evening!