digital scrapbooking

Well, I have a sinus infection. Blah! The doctor told me I had to rest, so the anniversary plans are postponed. :( However, this gives me time to play with my new digital software, My Digital Studio by Stampin' Up. I am completely digitally challenged, so I've been playing with this for a few days and here is what I've come up with so far:

As you can see, they're not perfect, and it has been quite a learning curve for me! But it's really fun! There are still lots of things I need to figure out, but I'm happy with my progress so far!

lm tag

My favorite scrapbooking site, Lifetime Moments, has been down for most of the week. So my friend Melissa started a game of LM tag! Here's the list:

Mestebla
Melissa
Mandipig
Becca
Jen Kalyn
Kysha
Montana's Mom
Angie
Simply Susan
AnnaMarie
Arlyn
JenniB
Stephanie
Renee
Jen Bergeron
Wendy
Kate
Nichole
Shamrock

Go leave someone a comment! Or leave me one! And have a great day!

(I'm too busy working on the Kindermusik schedule (again!) to worry about blogging right now! Maybe later!) ;)

happy june!

June is my birthday month and I have lots of thoughts about that. But they are for another day.

I've been scrapping this weekend! It's the big kickoff of Summer Scrapfest at Lifetime Moments!! I love Scrapfest - it always motivates me to get lots of stuff done. So I was scrapping on Saturday and got up from my desk for just a minute, and when I came back, I found this:
Come on! How am I supposed to scrap?! =^..^=

Anyway, here are some of the projects I did over the weekend. Enjoy.

new favorite page

I went to a crop today with a friend and had lots of fun! Of course, I only got one page done. I put the finishing touches on when I got home, but it's turned out to be my new favorite page! Here it is: Of course, there is a lot for me to update, but I just haven't really had time. Our shower is finally underway - the tile is in the shower but still needs to be done on the walls around the tub. Then the floor will be done and we also have to get the glass enclosure. Still lots to do, but it's progressing. I'll post pictures soon.

PS - This week's menu:
Monday - BBQ chicken, veggies
Tuesday - peanut crusted fish, veggies
Wednesday - game night, no cooking
Thursday - Brian cooks, chicken biscuits (?)
Friday - chicken casserole

12 of 12, mpm, and other stuff

I did it! I did 12 of 12 yesterday! 12 of 12 is this cool thing my friend Susan does on her blog, and I've decided to try it. The idea belongs to Chad, who is someone Susan knows. Anyway, you take 12 pictures on the 12th of the month and it just documents your day. So - this is my first ever 12 of 12! Here goes:

So yesterday, my wonderful friend John, who used to play in our band at church, got married! B and I headed to Lakeland for the wedding. Here I am driving. Notice my sleeveless dress - it was in the 80s yesterday!

Um, yeah - I totally left my camera in the car, so I don't have any pictures of the wedding. Well, John and Joy might not want their picture all over my blog anyway! But I did want to get a picture of me in my new dress, but by the time we got home I forgot about the picture - I just wanted to get out of my dressy clothes!

Anyway, after the wedding, we headed over to Violette's, my not-so-local scrapbook store. I had gotten the Classic Metro QK alphabet for Christmas (thanks, Mom & Dad!) but when I opened it up, the wrong alpha was in there! So I had to go exchange it.

Brian drove home and I studied for my upcoming Kindermusik classes. Mainly I was learning some new songs. Brian had the pleasure of me singing many kids songs a cappella in the car! :-) So goes the life of a KM teacher. We're always singing!

When we got home, I had to cut out my laminating - I had laminated all the lyric sheets for this semester and I felt like I had to get SOME work done yesterday. As you can see, I had a little "help" from the cats...they LOVE the laminated posters! They're slick, so the cats run and jump on them and slide across the family room!


I'm embarrassed to show you this next picture, because our Christmas tree is still up. *sigh* I swear we're taking it down tomorrow night! I was sick all last week and running around like crazy this past week trying to make up for it. Thus, all the decorations are down, but we still hafta take down the trees. Anyway, this gives you a good view of our family room with all the boxes - my Kindermusik materials came in this week and I got them all separated on Friday night. (We took them to my classroom today, so the family room is clean-ish now.)

We were home for about 45 minutes and then we left to go to Tim & Christy's house to play cards. On the way we stopped and picked up dinner at Urban Flats.

Here are the flatbreads we had for dinner - yummy!

And the card playing commenced...

When we got home, I had to take a picture of B because he was wearing his sexy jeans. Doesn't he look hot??!!

Before bed I had to do a "killer" Sudoku (also called "sum" Sudoku) - these are my favorite!

As soon as we start un-making the bed, Sam runs and gets up there - he CAN'T WAIT for us to get in bed with him!

So, that's a Saturday-in-the-life-of-us. Pretty exciting, huh? LOL!


In other news, let's talk about MPM (Menu Plan Monday). I have to admit, today when I was preparing for this coming week, it was nice to plan out my meals and know what we're having for dinner. Then, my wonderful husband went to the store while I did even more Kindermusik preparation, and he bought what we needed for our menu and for snacks, etc. So without further ado, here's our oh-so-exciting menu for this week:

Monday - veggie soup (leftover)
Tuesday - peanut crusted fish
Wednesday - B's game night, so I won't be cooking. I'll probably have PB&J.
Thursday - B's night to cook (I teach evening classes) - pasta with grape tomatoes, basil, and parmesan
Friday - minestrone (here is my recipe, it's YUMMY!)

That's it for now, except........I worked all afternoon today after church, got a TON of stuff done, but tonight I actually carved out the time to scrap a page. Here ya go. Good night!

newest quickutz project

Today was my Quickutz meeting at Violette's. We went to church and did our thing, then had a quick lunch and headed over to the scrapbook store, where Brian sat next to me and played on his computer while I made this cute project:



It was a lot of fun to make! The projects we do in the Quickutz club are awesome. This was only my second meeting and I totally love it! This store is one of the best scrapbook stores I've ever been to. It's just really big, decorated all cute, and set up in a great way. The staff is friendly and they always have food and drinks!

So now I'm in a scrappy mood and I'm going to work on my handmade gifts for Christmas. I have a lot to do still!

happy christmas to meeeeeeee!

Look what I got this week!!!! These are the two newest limited edition alphabet gift sets from Quickutz. They are SO cute - and the packaging is just as cute as the alphabets! I never dreamed I could get them both, but this is my early Christmas present from my fabulous and amazing husband. I can't wait to get the foam on them and start cutting!

quickutz club

Yesterday I joined the Quickutz club at Violette's, an awesome scrapbook store in Lakeland. They meet once a month and make a project or 2 and club members get either a special deal on QK products (yesterday it was buy one, get one free on all dies - even Revolution dies!) or some months we get a free die! Love it. So yesterday was my first club meeting ever. The store is about 70 minutes from my house, but about 20 minutes from church, and some of their meetings will be on Sunday afternoons. I had a rehearsal in Winter Haven last night anyway, so I rushed to Lakeland after my Kindermusik class. Here's what we made:How cute is that??!! It's a picture frame - 12x12. I totally love it. And of course, I ordered the die that made the leaves - it's one die that cuts 3 leaves. Adorable. Everyone at that store is so friendly and nice, and I'm so excited to be a part of this club!

a weekend of learning

Well, our weekend of Tim Holtz classes was awesome! I had a great time with Christy, scrapping, learning, and shopping. Here's the book we made in our class, Nostalgic Memoirs:

We actually learned how to sew a book binding! It was VERY cool! I'm pretty happy with the way mine turned out. The covers are canvas, and we learned how to use ink and blend it to make a unique look, and then we covered it with beeswax to seal the ink. Very fun! And then we junked it up with some cool ribbon and hardware.

And in the Mystery Class, we learned how to make this little mini-book out of a 6x6 paper pad, with no paper left over - no waste! Awesome!


How adorable is that! Yes, that swirl on the front is a piece of Grungeboard. It's SO cool! We also used some neat acrylic chips and fun hardware. I spent way too much time distressing and inking my pages, but it was so much fun! The right side of each page was a pocket page. I also won a door prize in this class - a 6x6 pad of Basic Grey Figgy Pudding with fibers and some hardware - LOVE IT! :-D

And - what's a weekend of scrapping without a little SHOPPING??!! Ruban Rouge is a great store and I picked up some goodies while I was there. I also stopped at another store in Lakeland on my way home - Violette's - I had no idea that was such a great store! All in all, here's my stash from the weekend:


Got some Prima sprites, AC Fall felt shapes, Fancy Pants biggest board, a few chipboard books (Maya Road - train, and Basic Grey - bracket), Heidi Swapp silhouette flowers, big blossoms (not shown) and ghost clocks, Prima paintables, assorted paper from Scenic Route, Creative Imaginations, KI, Basic Grey, and K&Co., some Bazzill scalloped cardstock, Tim Holtz GRUNGEBOARD (of course!), 7 gypsies photo corners, Tim Holtz Tonic paper piercer (retractable and so nice!), a Quickutz magnetic book (to store my cookie cutter dies), a mini score-it board, some Cosmo Cricket chipboard lacing cards, and some K&Co. wedding stickers (for cards). Yummy!!!! :-)

Who wants to come over and scrap?

night sweats

I really don't have any business blogging right now! I'm going to Tampa tomorrow for the weekend and I haven't even started packing. I'm so excited - I'm going to Ruban Rouge - a very popular scrapbook store - to take some classes taught by none other than Tim Holtz!! We are going to be able to use (and buy!) some of his brand new products that will not be released until December. I'm BEYOND excited!

I'm meeting up with my friend Christy, whom I met at Lifetime Moments. Yes, that's a message board! We're going to just enjoy a girls' weekend and crop the days away! I will post pictures when I get back.

In other news, this whole week I've been experiencing night sweats. WARNING: if you are a guy who thinks girls should just "glisten" or "perspire," stop reading now! (I don't want to ruin the mystique for anyone!) I have woken up in the wee hours every night this week sweating up a storm. Last night I was so hot, I got up and turned the air down, and when I got back in bed, my pillow was soaked and so was the spot where I had been laying before. Gross! With that and the hot flashes I've been having for some time now, I'm wondering what in the world is going on with my body! (Could I be perimenopausal at age 34? Maybe...)

insomnia...again

Truly, it's been awhile since I've had a real case of insomnia, but tonight I can't sleep. I went to bed, tossed and turned until about 3:15, and then got up. So here I am at 4:45 am, listening to a book, working on cards. I'm almost finished with the cards and then I'm going to do a scrapbook page. I'm behind on my challenges and I know I'll fall even more behind since I'll be out of town next week, so I want to try to get caught up this week. I've been so busy with Kindermusik that I haven't had much time to scrap.

Brian is in there snoring away with both cats curled up beside him! I checked on them a little bit ago when I went to get some (decaf) tea. :-) Precious.

I just heard the weirdest noise and it kinda scared me, but then I realized it's just our sprinklers coming on. Whew. Nice to know they're working, I guess!

I got an email today from FedEx saying that SIX boxes will be delivered to me on Thursday! It's my Kindermusik order! The boxes weigh around 20 pounds each, except there's one measly 4-pound box. I'm trying to figure out what's in there. Maybe it's my brochures. Or, maybe it's the beach balls - they're probably light!

Well, that's about it. I don't have any mind-boggling thoughts here in the wee hours. Just thought I'd tell everyone that I'm awake.

book reviews and stuff

As you know, I've been reading lots of books this summer. So I've decided to post a few reviews, especially since I've been trying out some new authors.

"The Blue Zone" by Andrew Gross - I really enjoyed this book. Andrew has been writing along with James Patterson, and this is his first book writing alone. The story is a mystery with underlying tones of family and trust. It had some VERY interesting plot twists that I didn't see coming. And I usually see everything coming, so this was a nice surprise. There was some of what I consider to be unnecessary language, but I guess that's a given in most secular books. I would recommend this book if you like a good mystery.

"Heartstopper" by Joy Fielding - I had never read anything by Joy Fielding, so I had no expectations when I began this book. It's another mystery; I love mysteries! Anyway, right from the start she gives lots of clues as to who the murderer is...but then she gives more clues that allude to someone else than who you previously thought...and then even more clues pointing to someone else. I really liked this. At one point, I thought, "OK the murderer could be any of these people..." And then I went on to name like 15 people, and then I realized that I had just named practically every character in the book. :-) I loved that. But as it got nearer the end, I said to Brian, "I think the murderer is (a person who I won't mention here)." And I was right, even though the author TOTALLY tried to throw you off that person's scent.

This book was not a difficult read - in fact, the writing was a bit elementary for my taste. I like something a little more sophisticated. But I did enjoy it and I will probably read her again. (Even though there was also unnecessary language in this book, too.)

"Where Are the Children?" by Mary Higgins Clark - Disclaimer: I've loved everything I've read by this author. She really has a knack for storytelling, and it's often hard to guess what will happen next. I had NO IDEA who the killer was in this book until she revealed it. It was really a great read, and none of her books have any language in them, which I appreciate. What's interesting about that: she creates some really nasty characters who, in real life, would probably use profanity. But she manages to make them evil without using unnecessary language; I think some other authors (ahem, James Patterson) could take a lesson from Mary. I would totally recommend this book and anything else written by this author.

"The Sixth Target" by James Patterson - Speaking of Patterson, I might as well go ahead and review this book. I should start by saying that I am a fan of James Patterson. I've read every book he's written. It's hard to beat his "Alex Cross" series. I practically RUN to the library whenever I hear he's written something new. This book is the 6th book in his "Women's Murder Club" series.

With that said, I was pretty disappointed in this book. I felt like it was lazily written and there was lots of "filler." In other words, there were big sections of the book that didn't have anything at ALL to do with the story, and they were boring and could have totally been cut out. Maybe he was trying to make a word quota, who knows. But there were many times when I looked at Brian and said, "I don't CARE!!!! What's going on in the court room??!! Who is the killer??!! What has happened to (name of character, don't want to give anything away)??!!" I couldn't possibly care less about the main character's love life, her walks with her dog, or the details of her dinner. *rolling eyes*

I don't know if I would really recommend this one. I would, however, recommend his "Alex Cross" series and most of the other books in the "Women's Murder Club" series.

"Divine" by Karen Kingsbury - Another new author for me. This is a Christian author, so I was excited to read her. But I'm pretty picky when it comes to books, and her prologue was so long, drawn out, and boring, I almost gave up on the book. But I'm glad I didn't because it was a great story.

The main complaint I have about this book was the author's writing style. (I told you, I'm pretty picky!) This is a modern-day Mary Magdalene story. Well, this was a Christian writer trying to tell a "difficult" story and she just didn't do a good job with parts of it. At one point, there was this horrible drug-dealing pimp, and he would say things like, "Be quiet, little girl." I mean, come on. Drug dealing pimps don't say that! They slap people around, scream "Shut up! Shut up, or I'll give you something to cry about," or something.

Again, that said, this was a great story of grace and forgiveness and there were points of suspense that were well-written and exciting. I would recommend this book if you can stand a childish (my opinion) writing style.

"Body Surfing" by Anita Shreve - This is the second book I've read by her, and while she's not on my "favorite authors" list, I have enjoyed her books. Interestingly, the family in this book lives in the same house as the family in her other book I've read, "The Pilot's Wife." Several times in the book, they speak of buying the house from that family. Anyway, this is another story of family, love, and loss. It is a pretty good read. The plot was predictable at times, but I still liked the story.

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In other news, life has just been pretty normal around here. I've been working away at getting my Kindermusik business going. It costs a LOT for advertising and to order all the instruments and stuff! I wish it would hurry and start so I could MAKE some money to pay back all that I've been using to get everything going!

Oh, I almost forgot to say...Brian and I are going be an aunt & uncle AGAIN! For the FOURTH time! Jason (Brian's brother) and his wife Angela are expecting. We are SO excited at the prospect of a new niece or nephew to join Emma, Will, and Braden.

In a few weeks, I'll go visit Mom and Dad in KY. Mom and I are going to clean out, organize, throw away, and clean out some more. I'm hoping to get a good look at all her pictures. :-) I'm also hoping to get to Dayton for a day to see sweet, precious Braden (and I guess Brad and Kari too, ha!)

And lastly, I've been scrapping a ton! Scrapfest at LM REALLY SUPER motivates me! I will attach a few more recent pages:

birthday weekend recap

It has been a wonderfully relaxing weekend, just what I wanted for my birthday. ;-) First, on Friday night, Brian put up some shelves in my scraproom for me. Here are the before and after pictures:

I am SO HAPPY with them!!!! And I did go to Home Depot and get one more shelf to add to the top, finishing it off. Thus, I scrapped some on Saturday and for most of the afternoon/evening today. Saturday evening, Brian took me out for a romantic dinner at a little Italian restaurant. I had THE BEST lasagna I've EVER had - the waiter told us everything was homemade and I can believe it. They even make their own pasta noodles. It was TO DIE FOR! And I had tiramisu for dessert, and that was delicious too! Here we are at the restaurant (me, complete with rudolph nose, I don't know why, I always wear sunscreen, *sigh*):
Thanks to all of you who called or emailed with birthday well wishes. It was a quiet weekend with my husband, just what I wanted. Fabulous!

Oh, and here's my new favorite scrapbook page! I did it yesterday (it's a partial scraplift, which means I "borrowed" an idea from someone else) - it's the title page for our cruise book:

adventures in cruising - day six - at sea

This is fun, re-living the cruise! OK, so it's time for day six. This day was not an exciting day. We got up late, had breakfast, then almost immediately had lunch. We sat around the table talking, then we went up to the deck and lounged around in the sun. It was glorious.

Eventually it started getting a bit cloudy, so we went inside to the second floor of the buffet restaurant and played cards until almost 6:00! There was no one else up there and it was so nice to just have the place to ourselves! It was formal night, so we had to go back to our rooms to shower and get all spruced up!We met for dinner in our "formal" attire, and then we walked around the ship for awhile, seeing what all was going on. We ended up, of course, at the disco, and we danced the night away! Here's Alicia and I doing the Electric Slide! Wooo!I'm pretty sure this was the night that there was a deck party, so we went and watched everyone making fools of themselves at midnight on the Lido deck. It was hilarious to watch all those old ladies in the conga line!

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In other news, tonight will begin the birthday weekend. :-) Yes, folks, much as I hate to admit it, tomorrow is my 34th birthday. *sigh* I don't FEEL 34 and I really don't think I LOOK 34, so I'm trying not to let it bother me that I'm headed for 40, full speed ahead.

Anyway, the band is off from church this weekend, so I don't have to go to rehearsal on my birthday, yay! Brian and I are planning a relaxing weekend together - I've been wanting to add shelves to the big bare wall in my scraproom, so Brian is going to put those up for me. I went to Home Depot today and bought them - thanks, Mom and Dad, for the money that contributed to the shelves! And tomorrow night we're going out to eat somewhere - B made reservations, but I don't know where.

And then some sad news: the air conditioner in my car is broken. It's been broken for weeks, but we've been able to share Brian's car. However, every time I have to go anywhere while he's at work, I'm just miserable. It's 500 degrees here, and when I stop at a red light, it's just dead, stale, suffocating, hot air. Ugh! I think we're gonna have to bite the bullet and cough up the big bucks to get it fixed.

That's it for now! I'm going to go clear off the top of my scrap desk and wipe down the new shelves so everything will be all ready when Brian gets home.

Lastly, here's a page I did last night (it's a scraplift, don't go thinking I was all creative and came up with the idea for the cool heart):

for some reason...

...I think it's absolutely hilarious to jump out and scare Brian as he comes in from work. :-) A few weeks ago, I stood inside our tiny pantry and scared the crap out of him! And for some reason, after I do it, I just dissolve into laughter! I mean, I think it's funny, but after I've scared him, it's just the funniest thing in the world! I did it tonight, but he came around the corner looking for me because Max was staring at me. Max gave me away! =^..^=

Well, this past weekend was busy busy busy, again. On Saturday I went to the Scrapbook Expo at the Orlando Convention Center. I went with my friend Tiffany (her husband works with Brian) and while we were there, we met up with Christy, a girl I know from online at Lifetime Moments. Christy lives in Tampa and is just the most adorable. We only got to hang out with Christy for about an hour, though. But Tiff and I had a ton of fun and probably spent too much money! I'll have to take a picture of my stash and post it.

After I dropped Tiffany off at her house (we stayed almost till the end of the Expo), I rushed to church for rehearsal. It was a really fun rehearsal and the guy who used to play piano with us was there, so he stayed after rehearsal and showed me a few jazz chord voicings that I wanted to know. So I got home really late. And we got up early of course, headed to church, did the rehearsal/sound check/service, then had lunch with our guitarist & drummer, then went to my cousin's for a little while, and then back to church for more rehearsals. It was revival weekend and we combined with the musicians from the first service for Sunday night's service. It was really fun and I thought pretty much everything went well.

Needless to say, Monday I was exhausted! Tuesday I went to Winter Haven for vocal rehearsal, and then I went shopping. Again. I went shopping last week too, but haven't blogged about it yet! Anyway, over the last week, I've gotten 3 pairs of capris, 2 skirts, 2 pairs of shorts, 2 tops, and one pair of shoes. I think I'm just about done shopping for awhile - I could still use a few more tops, though. :-) I love shopping now that I can fit into stuff! By the way, it looks like I'm down another size! I can't even believe it.

Well, it's about time for me to get dinner. It's almost done - Dream Dinners Orange Mongolian Beef with rice and veggies. I'm starved!

playing catch-up

Well, has this blog been boring or what??!! It seems like 40 years since I blogged! Christmas and New Year's came and went with barely a post from me, let alone a picture! So I thought I'd take a little bit of time and try to catch up a little.

Let's see. A few weeks ago, my friends Julie and Rob came to Orlando for Children's Pastors Conference. I used to work with them at Brentwood-Benson (Provident) Music and it was so great to see them! They came last January too. No, they're not a couple. They are just the ones from work who come and man the BB booth at the conference. The week they came was extremely busy, but we met them for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe (Downtown Disney) late on Saturday night. Here is a pic of us:



And for fun, let's compare it to a pic of us from January 2006:



Um, yeah. Check out my 5 chins in that second pic. Are you tired of me talking about my weight loss? Do you want another update? hahahaha! I actually haven't officially weighed myself since October. My home scale says I haven't lost or gained, so that's good, but more importantly, my clothes tell me that I haven't gained. I'm back into the exercise and healthy eating full-force now. I'm easing myself into some Yoga - it's kicking my butt so far! But I can see that I'm going to really enjoy it, if I can ever endure it for more than 10 minutes!!

Ah, Idol is back on. I don't enjoy the preliminary auditions as much now as I used to. We've seen it all before. People who live in their own little world come out of the woodwork and make fools of themselves, blah blah. I'm ready for Hollywood week and the top however many they're going to pick this year. More Idol chat to come, for sure.

Brian and I have been busy little bees every weekend in January and so far in February, and it looks like it's not going to let up until March. Whew! But at least we've been having fun! Last Saturday we went to Tampa for a matinee showing of the Broadway show "Monty Python's Spamalot." Let me just say, it was hilarious. This was Brian's birthday present, even though his birthday isn't till the end of March. But I saw last fall that Spamalot was coming to Tampa, and we bought tickets the day they went on sale in October - and we got orchestra seats! It was a great time and we laughed our heads off!

As we were walking from our car to the Performing Arts Center, we saw this:



As we came around the truck, we saw that they were giving out free samples of Spam! Of course, Brian couldn't pass up the chance to try some Spam:



That Spam was gross, it smelled VERY bad! Brian ate a few bites, but he couldn't stomach too much of it. Yuck! At any rate, the show was excellent and hilarious, and we would highly recommend it.

I've been busy with the band at church, too - we've been doing gigs other than church and it's been a lot of fun! Someday I'll figure out how to put some music on here.

I've been scrapping a ton! Scrapfest is still going on at Lifetime Moments, and we all know how much I love that! Here are some of my favorites I've done during Scrapfest:






I think that's about all I have to tell you about right now. Oh, except for that my best-friend-since-we-were-born, Jenni, finally got to meet Joey McIntyre, with whom she has been obsessed since she was like 12, when he was in New Kids on the Block. Here's the proof of their meeting:



Heehee. Hope everyone is having a great year so far. We're busy tomorrow, but at least Brian and I get to spend some time together! Yay! So I'm off to bed. Good night!