Our Ordinary Life

Project Life

2012-01-24T22:35:00.001-06:00

Yes...I've hopped on the Project Life bandwagon. I haven't been scrapping much over the last year...I just didn't have it in me. Oh, I did some layouts for our Alaskan Cruise, but still haven't finished that album. What attracted me to Project Life is the simplicity of it. I love all the everyday stuff and the idea of words + pictures just makes me happy right now. Of course, I thought I wanted to do it all paper. I went on that way for about 3 weeks, but just couldn't finish even 1 week. But the call of the digital world was just too strong. LOL! So, I decided to embrace my digital roots and be like NIKE and Just Do It! I started with Week 3 (I'll probably go back and redo my earlier weeks) and completed it it in about 2 hours. Go me!

supplies: Background Michele Martins Just Linens No. 7, Page Protectors 3 by Valorie Wibbens, Template my own design, based on Becky Higgins' Design A, Turquoise Journal Cards and Title Cards, Filler Cards No. 1 by Gina Miller, Birthday Doodles by CD Muckosky, Banner Labels by Katie Pertiet, Thu & Fri boxes by Ali Edwards, Fonts: Other Typewriter and Pea Melissa.

Next I'm working on Week 4 (I started the last week in December, so I'm a week "ahead") and should have that ready in the next day or so.

More later...

Art Journaling Adventure

2011-08-29T20:35:00.000-05:00

I haven't been much of a blogger lately..hah! But, I just had to come here and talk about my new obsession (er...) LOVE! ART JOURNALING! Talk about really cool stuff! It's a great way to get feelings down on paper and then just send them off to the universe. It also allows me to explore art styles that are completly different from my normal clean/simple scrapbooking style. AND...it's a great excuse to buy more supplies! LOL!

First up is a Self Portrait for the Auguts Adventure Quest:

Next is one that I translated from a doodle I made at work. I have been really frustrated with some network changes going on at work...culminating in my hanging out with the Help Desk for 2 hours while they downloaded some patches on my computer. Sigh...Not...A...Happy...Camper. (Orange is my irritated color!)

What am I going to do with these? My plan is to print them and put them in a binder. I don't know what kind of binder yet. But I don't think I'll be using page protectors. The self portrait is 8 1/2 x 11; the Waiting is 5 1/2 x 8. I think I want to use that size for my journal...but I haven't decided yet. I might be cool to have different sized layouts. We'll see.

I do have some layouts from my Alaska Cruise. My plan is to print them out and send completed albums to each of the families on the trip. Tomorrow I'll share some of those layouts...

It's the Big One

2011-08-17T23:53:00.000-05:00

That's right...it's a big birthday. But not mine! Danny celebrated his 50th birthday Sunday with his family. His sister Betsy, all his brothers, their wives and all the kids were here at our house for some mad grilling!

It was a great time! There was lots of food, fun and football! Yes, I said football. We have the NFL channel, so we were watching re-runs of preseason games...because it's been awhile since we've seen football!

I think my biggest regret is I didn't get a picture of Danny with all the sibs. This is the first time that all of them have been to our house at the same time! But, I did manage to get pictures of the kids (why do I always get pictures of the kids?)

Belated Birthday Celebration

2011-01-30T22:24:00.001-06:00

Poor Adam. His birthday is just a couple days before Christmas. So, I always feel he gets short-changed in the birthday party arena. Usually we have a family party for him on his actual birthday, but the party with friends gets lost in the shuffle. Last year, we had a birthday party at the end of January, and it worked out really well. So, to celebrate a milestone birthday - the big One -Oh! - we waited again to the end of January to celebrate. We let Adam invite 7 friends for a big sleep over party. YIKES! What were we thinking, right?!? Actually, it wasn't too bad. We started by letting the boys just hang out and play around. Since it was a little misty outside, we had Nerf wars in the house.

We had pizza for dinner, followed by birthday cupcakes...picked out by the birthday boy himself!

And of course, the presents:

I retired upstairs to my room and left Danny downstairs to pay attention to the boys. Not that they needed much attention. They watched Despicable Me and G.I. Joe and fell asleep sometime around Midnight. The next morning, I got up and made my world famous (at least in Adam's mind!) pancakes.

Overall, Adam was just the happiest of kids. He told me several times that it was his best birthday ever! That's the best you can hope for, right?

Slow and steady

2011-01-05T21:40:00.001-06:00

I have to keep reminding myself of that. I swam again tonight. It's only the third time I've been in the pool for Masters. I really love being in the pool. It's the hardest thing I've ever done (except maybe giving birth, but at least I had good drugs to help me through that. LOL!). But I love it! Tonight I cramped up really badly -- from the knee down to my foot. The good thing, though, was the encouragement from the other adults swimming. One of the men even told me about how one night when he first started his whole leg cramped (it wasn't a pretty sight!). So, my word is present in my life today. Persistent. My next day back in the water is Monday night! And I'll be there!

Photo Actions by Totally Rad (Boring Selinium and Bitchin' B&W)
This is also my picture for today for the Picture Winter class. Yesterday's picture was a bit of sunshine:

Photo Actions by My4HensPhotography. I combined like 3 or 4 of them.
For this picture I sat on the floor in our game room and practiced focusing on the sap bucket with the sunflowers. Through a little bit of creative cropping, it looks brighter than it really was.

You may have also noticed that I added another badge to my blog. I decided to retake Ali Edwards' Yesterday and Today class at Big Pictures Classes. When I originally took the class in the Fall of 2009, I was really not feeling the love for scrapbooking, so I never truly embraced the class. Already I have completed the three excercises for the first week (I don't think I ever did it the first time) and have lots to think about! I'm going to take pictures of the worksheets this weekend and post here.

But the excercise got me thinking about all the layouts I haven't printed. One of my tasks for this weekend is go through all my albums and mark which layouts I've printed, so I can make a list of the layouts I want to print (and which ones should never been spoken of again!). I'll probably upload them in batches and send off to scrapbookpictures.com. I've used them before and have been really pleased with the quality and the colors. So my question to you digital scrappers is: Have you printed all of your layouts? If not, why not?

Well, I'm off to moan and groan and take care of my aching muscles.

Another photo...and yes, Virginia, a Layout

2011-01-03T19:41:00.001-06:00

I really love the Picture Winter class a Big Picture Classes. It's only been 3 days, but I have been able to meet the challenge each day. And I'm looking forward to my next prompts. When I got the prompt for today, I thought about stacking some of my winter fabric collection and taking a picture, until I got home from work and there was this book waiting on the kitchen table:

Danny picked it up at D&J Sports today while shopping for a pair of fins. I can't wait to read it! And I just love it that he is trying to encourage both of us!

I also finished a layout today. I know, huh? All this online class taking is really inspiring me! Adam's 10th birthday was a couple weeks ago and I wanted to do a layout for him like I did for Geary on his 10th birthday. So, here is my baby...all grown up and 10 years old!

The layout is a page sketch from Cathy Zielske's Make a Page Monday. The brown and camo papers, the camo alpha and the camo rubber band are all by Dani Mogstad (Tough Guy kit). I used several Totally Rad photo actions. The key is by Gina Miller. I don't remember where I got the ticket (sorry...).

New Year' Goals

2011-01-02T17:55:00.000-06:00

I don't do resolutions...really, I don't. Resolutions can be so generic. "I'm going to lose weight." "I'm going to excercise more." You know the drill. Well, this year, I've set some goals for myself. Starting with the concept of One Little Word. I first heard about this from Ali Edwards a few years ago. My previous word was Play. I don't even remember what my word was for last year (so that was a big bust!). This year, she is offering a year-long class at Big Picture Classes to help keep your word active in your life. I am all over that! My word for this year is PERSISTENT. According to dictionary.com, the definition is:

persisting, esp. in spite of opposition, obstacles, discouragement, etc.

My word fits for me and my goals for this year: Lose weight (50 pounds), Move More (running, swimming, biking), spend more time being creative (photography, scrapbooking, sewing). I'm really looking forward to this journey. I've started on my OLW album pages and anxiously waiting for my album to get back in stock at Scrapbook.com so I can print it out and have something tangible to sit on my desk.

Also among my goals is to be persistent in my weight loss. Last year I started Weight Watchers at Work. My company is paying for it (WooHoo!). Without much effort, I was able to drop 15 pounds. But, after a visit to my doctor, I know that I really need to lose 50 more pounds. The only way that is going to happen is if I Move More and Eat Less. While this isn't an online class, it does use one of my favorite crafty things: Scrapbooking to document my journey. Again, I'm working on a physical album (even using my own handwriting!) to have that tangible piece of accountability.

My other goal is to persue more crafty activities. This last year I was a huge lump and barely did any scrapbooking. Other than my Week in Life Album in April, there was not much craft goodness going on in this household. Santa was very good to me and brought me my Canon Rebel that I've been coveting for several years *GRIN*. As a gift to myself, I signed up for Tracey Clark's Picture Winter online class at Big Picture Classes. Each day for the next 30 days I get an email with a prompt for taking a picutre. What better way to get to know my camera than by doing this?
Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 2 alternate (just because I love how this turned out!):

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T21:11:00.001-06:00

Hope you and yours have a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!

Words to Live By

2010-12-14T11:58:00.000-06:00

Keri Smith writes these incredible books to help you free up your creativity. (as a side note, my favorite is Wreck This Journal). She had this incredible blog post a couple weeks ago about Secrets of the Self Employed (or How to be an Amazing [insert profession here]). My favorites are #6 -- Goof off on a regular basis (I completely LOVE this idea!) and #8 -- What you think becomes your reality. I always had a belief that if I cleaned out my recycling bin in my studio I would get new work. And guess what, it always happened. If you think the industry is screwed and there is no work to be had, guess what you will find out there?

So, go read her entry: Keri Smith Secret's Shared and tell me which entry is your favorite!

Summer Mini-break

2010-08-09T14:15:00.001-05:00

Most of the time my vacation time is spent visiting family of some sort. Not that I mind at all. I love my family and I love visiting with Danny's family as well. But sometimes, I feel like we need to do something...just the 4 of us. So we decided to take a little mini-vacation down to Galveston. Of course, we played the same little game we play with the boys every time we go somewhere: No, I'm not going to tell you where we're going. We're staying in a place we've never stayed before. Just annoying stuff like that *GRIN* It gets the boys really excited and thinking about where we could be going and it's just plain fun for me and Danny!
Believe it or not, we've never spent the night down in Galveston. Danny found us a suite hotel, right across from the beach. As I told the boys, this was my idea of camping...a kitchen in the room. Although, I must admit, the kitchens in the RV's my parents had were bigger than this one:

We stayed at the Casa del Mar (61st and Seawall for you locals who are reading). It was a little small, but certainly clean and not terribly expensive.

The kids' favorite part was the bunk beds:

And the view wasn't too bad either:

We went down Friday afternoon and spent the early evening on the beach. Note to self: 1600 on is the best time to hit the beach. It's cooled off enough to be pleasant (not scorching hot!). And, because it's the Gulf of Mexico, the water is nice and warm - almost bath-like!

We picked the wrong side of the pier, so the water was full of seaweed (ewwww!). We fixed that problem by going to the other side of the pier on Saturday, so we had nice seaweed free water! HOWEVER...it was not a critter-free environment. The fish were really close in to the shore and jumping like crazy! And because the fish were in so close, so were the seagulls and the pelicans - all trying to get a good meal! One guy got slapped in the chest by a jumping fish! I wish I had my camera ready when that happened.

Saturday and Sunday we had all-day passes to Moody Gardens. Talk about a deal! We had unlimited access to the Aquarium, the Rainforest, the Discovery Pyramid and the Imax Theater. We even had access to the Paddle Boat and the Beach, which we didn't use.
We all loved the Aquarium the best. Right now they are doing a special exhibit on Sharks, in additional to all the regular critters: Seals, Penguins and lots and lots of fish! To continue with the shark theme, we went to the Sharks in 3D IMAX movie. That was well done and informative.
The Rainforest suffered a lot of damage during Hurricane Ike two years ago. Not damage to the structure, but to the plants, birds, etc. that were housed in the building. Unfortunately, the basement of the Rainforest pyramid flooded (with about 9 feet of water) and it destroyed the HVAC system (temperature control). So a lot of what they used to have was moved out and has not been brought back yet. Moody Gardens is shutting down the Rainforest in September for some major renovations and it won't open again until May of next year. I hope they are able to bring back some of the other birds and fish that they had when I first went there 15 years ago. Now, that's not to say there wasn't anything to see. There was still plenty of vegetation and several waterfalls. The highlight though was the Macaws! They had 6 different types of Macaws...all in pairs. Those are beautiful birds!

To end our trip, we had an early dinner at Gaido's...one of the most well know seafood restaurants on the Island! It was well worth it, too! Danny and I each had a different preparation of Shrimp (mine stuffed with seafood, Danny's stuffed with cheese, jalapeno and wrapped in bacon), while the boys had "fish fingers"...the fish was fried Tilapia! And it looked fabulous! Definitely going to eat there again when we go back!

We're finally done!

2010-07-25T23:41:00.001-05:00

This was the last weekend for swim meets for this season! We had the Gulf Champs for 12 and Under with B and under times. For those of you new to swimming language, let me explain. USA Swimming (the governing body for swimming in the US) sets "motivational" times for age groups (10&Under, 11-12, etc.) by stroke (free, back, fly, breast, IM) and distance (50, 100, 200, etc.). The times go from B through AAAA, with B being the "slowest" of the competitive times. It's a big deal when a kid gets his first B time! So, how did we do? AWESOME, BABY! Both boys got personal bests in all their events. Adam got 3 ribbons: 4th for 50 Fly, 7th for 50 Back and 2nd for the 200 Free Relay. Geary earned 2 ribbons: 7th for the 500 Free and 3rd for the 200 Free Relay. Adam also earned his first BB time in the 50 Fly. Geary continued climbing up the ladder in the 11-12 bracket by getting another B time in the 500 Free. His coach told him that he swam a perfect race. His last 100 was the same time as his first 100. Geary is definitely going to be a long-distance swimmer. And both boys are awesome at the Butterfly! So how about a few pictures?
Adam on the blocks:

Chillaxin dude:

Adam Breaststroke:

Gman Fly:

Counting laps for Gman during the 500 Free:

The spoils of victory:

As always, more later!

A Little Bit of Scrapbooking

2010-07-23T14:01:00.000-05:00

I haven't been scrapping as much as I used to. I'm not sure what it is...a combination of wasting time on Facebook (c'mon, you know you all do the same thing *WINK*) and a burning desire to upgrade my work wardrobe.Anyway, I did find some time to scrap this week, so in honor of Froggy Friday over at The Lily Pad here is my latest effort:

My Mother-in-Law Agnes captured the boys jumping into tubes at the lake near Georgetown, Texas. And the title? Well, I was listening to Chickenfoot's song "Oh Yeah!" and it just fit. Most everything is from the new collab Whirlwind by Gina Miller and Amy Wolff and it's 20% off through Sunday.

I will leave you with a few other layouts from the last few weeks (all credits can be found at My LilyPad Gallery )

Weekend Recap

2010-07-20T05:00:00.001-05:00

We had an active weekend, despite all the rain. Friday night we went out to dinner at Carrabbas. I really love their food! I had Whole Wheat Linguini and Clams in Garlic Olive Oil, Danny had Mr. & Mrs. C's special which is Chicken Involtini and Chicken Santa Rosa with sauteed spinach, Adam had spaghetti and meatball (it's one honkin' meatball!) and Geary had grilled chicken. Yeah...weird, I know! The kid does not like red sauce on his pasta, so he gets grilled chicken. Adam entertained us by practicing some magic at the dinner table. He's been playing this new computer game - Wizarding 101 - so he's got magic on the brain.

I didn't say he was very good!

I worked Saturday and Sunday mornings at the Gulf Champs Meet hosted by Fleet at the Fleet Pool. All Fleet families are asked to volunteer 24 hours per year, or they are charged $150. There are lots of things that go on to make a Meet run successfully - Concessions, Hospitality (feeding the visiting coaches and volunteers), running the Colorado computerized timing system, Clerk of Course, Safety Marshalls, Announcing, Parking.

I'm now part of the "committee" that is overseeing concessions at Fleet hosted meets. Fleet sells drinks (water, gatorade, sodas), muffins, fruit (bananas, apples) and some candy. All the heavy-duty "hot" food we contract out to a local sub-shop, Lenny's. So all that I'm responsible for is making sure we have enough drinks on ice, enough food (but not too much!) and keep an eye on the cash box. I'm working with one of the Board of Director members trying to come up with a committee of 3 or 4 other ladies so we can rotate through the weekend...that way none of us has to work the whole weekend. This is my second meet and it's getting easier for me. I'm starting to get a feel for the ebb-and-flow of concession sales.

Danny has become the "Official Voice of Fleet"! He does the announcing at almost every meet. The Team Director told me over the weekend that she hated to ask him to do it this past weekend because he does announce at every meet. But, he loves it!

Dan also picked up some fish to restart one of our fish tanks. He got 2 clown loaches, 4 bala sharks, a lemon angel fish, 2 red-tail sharks and a spotted plecko. Skylar thinks that she should be able to play with them!

After I left the meet on Saturday, we went to see The Sorcerer's Apprentice. We all LOVED it! Nicholas Cage is a whacko (highly technical term!), but he's brilliant! I love how they worked in the Mickey scene from Fantasia and some other cultural references (I don't want to spoil it for you!). If you're looking for a shut-your-brain-off-for-a-couple-hours type of movie, this is it.

That's all for now...see you soon!

A Little fun

2010-07-17T08:10:00.002-05:00

I got this from my friend Janet via Facebook:

I write like
Stephen King

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Who do you write like?

Mid Year Recap, Part Deux

2010-07-16T13:21:00.000-05:00

Mel goes on a Business Trip:
I went on the dog-and-pony show for Accelerated Month-End close, in preparation for our upcoming merger. I was demoing management reporting and how it would make their lives easier...blah, blah, blah! What that meant was that I got to travel overseas again...this time to the Eastern Hemisphere. I spent 4 days in Frankfurt and 4 days in Dubai. Frankfurt was wunderbar! The food was fantastic; the beer was fantastic (and I don't drink beer anymore!); the weather was fantastic! And best of all, World Cup was going on. Just about every restaurant that had outdoor seating had a big screen TV playing WC football! We even called our meeting early on Friday so we could go sit in a pub and watch Germany (LOSE! Eh!)

Old Town Frankfurt. We ate lunch under the yellow awnings.Schnitzel and Spaetzel and Beer...oh my!

Never drink anything bigger than your head!

What do you know...a litre of beer is NOT bigger than my head!

Then it was off to the Middle East. Dubai is a very Western city. And I mean WESTERN! If there hadn't been signs in Arabic, I'm not sure I would have known I was in the Middle East. To me, Dubai is a cross between New York City and Las Vegas. And yes...it is a DRY heat!

View from my hotel room.

Burg Khalifa. The World's tallest building

My favorite sign!

I did get to go to the Top of the Burg Khalifa. The view might have been spectacular, if the smog hadn't been so disgusting. I'm sorry, but Houston's smog problem is nothing compared to Dubai. We also went through the Dubai Aquarium (in the same mall that you enter the Burg Khalifa from). The only thing I missed out on was the indoor ski slope. That was in a different mall.

The Boys' Summer Adventure:
While I was off galavanting halfway across the world, Danny took the boys to stay with his Mom in Austin. Grandma had their days filled with lots of activities. A great summer vacation away from the parents!

water sports, of course!

indoor gaming. My boys are turning into Pool Sharks. I'm going to have to learn to play just to keep up with them!

Inner Space Caverns, south of Austin.

Danny does...Arizona!
After dropping the boys off in Austin, Danny headed to Arizona to meet up with fellow cartridge collectors Pete and Bill. This was for research for his book he's writing...and possibly some bits for his Masters Thesis. Of course, being Danny, he hasn't shared any photos with me, so I have nothing to share with you. Suffice it to say, he came back a happy boy with lots of information!

Hope you enjoyed this mid-year recap. More to come...

Mid-Year Recap

2010-07-15T16:23:00.000-05:00

So I won't bore you with all those "best intentions" crap. Just suffice it to say that I haven't been moved to write until now. Who knows how long this latest interest will last, but hopefully it will be more than just a couple days :)

So what's been going on at Casa LeClair? Swimming, swimming, Mel goes on a girl's trip, swimming, Mel goes on a business trip while Danny goes on a research trip while the boys visit Grandma Agnes, and, of course, MORE SWIMMING!

So, let's start with...SWIMMING! (LOL!)
The boys swim year-round for the USA Swimming club Fleet. They love it! Geary is in the Silver group and practices 5 nights a week for 1 1/2 hours each night. Adam is in the Bronze II group and practices 4 nights a week for 1 hour each night. Of course, they do not practice at the same pool, so Danny and I do the divide and conquer routine, rarely seeing each other until about 8pm (2000 for those military folks). So, I like to say that I have no life, I have swimmers! We are at the end of long course season (swimming in 50 meter pools) and everyone is happy about that. I think my favorite, but most conflicted, moment was back in April at the Texas A&M Open meet. They competed in the same heat in the 50 Meter Breaststroke. Fortunately there were not swimming side-by-side! Danny just stood up and yelled "Go LeClairs!" Geary won the heat and Adam came in a respectable 5th place.
Now that Geary is 11, we don't have to worry about them competing against each other...at least not for 2 more years when they'll be in the same age group again.

After the meet...

Lane 4 and Lane 7...

Mel goes on a girl's weekend trip
In April I drove to New Orleans to meet up with Jaynice and Janet for a girl's weekend away. The last time I was in New Orleans was in 1998 with my niece Jennifer. We had a spectacular time! We ate at some fabulous restaurants: NOLA - Emeril Lagasse's restaurant, GW Fins - a seafood restaurant with a menu changes daily, and Joey K's - featured on Diner, Drive-Ins and Dives. And on Friday, the beginning of the New Orleans French Quarter Festival - which had tons of food from local restaurants and lots of free, live music! And each night we went down to Bourbon street and drank Hurricanes and listened to more live music!

Mmmm...Hurricanes!

Mmmm...Beignets!

Mmmm....LOL!
The girls sitting on the steps of our "hotel" room. Photo taken by our wonderful security guard Max.

Tomorrow I'll conclude this mid-year recap.

Later...

Sunday Recap

2010-01-10T20:46:00.000-06:00

It's been a VERY cold week here in Houston. We've had 3 nights of freezing temperatures. Fortunately, there has been no precipitation (or Participation, as Adam keeps calling it. LOL!). Just super cold temperatures. But, that means we get to have a fire. I love a good blazing fire.

It also means that I could stay inside all weekend and play at The LilyPad's 3rd Birthday Bash! The ladies over there are lots of fun! I even won a couple gift cards during the Saturday evening chat - to Valorie Wibbens (Spotted Dog Designs) and Amy Sumrall. Can't wait to get some new goodies from both of them. But in the meantime, I picked up a TON of new stuff from Kaye Winiecki at The LilyPad's 30% off sale. Right now Kaye and Kristin Rice (K Studio) are my two new favorite designers of digi products. Here's what I got:

and these as well...including something from Amy Martin and Amy Wolff:

And since I'm showing off my digi purchases, I need to include these other things as well...
Gina Miller's contribution to the LilyPad's BYOC:

And the other pieces of the BYOC that I picked up:

Well...this was supposed to be a Project 365 post, but looks like that will have to wait until tomorrow. Yes...I'm keeping up with it. You'll just have to come back later to see what we've been up to.

Project 365

2010-01-04T20:02:00.004-06:00

...or how many times am I going to attempt to do this? Once again I am embarking on a Photo-A-Day journey. The first year I made it 45 days before I pooped out. Last year, I made it about 3 weeks before it got to be too much. This year I swore I wasn't going to do it, but here I am, on January 4th, with photos from the first 4 days of the year. So, rather than say I'm "doing it" I will say that I will take a photo each day that I feel like it. And I will post those photos here...when I feel like it. No pressure. No guilt. Just some photos that represent our everyday life.

First...our New Year's Kitty.

The cats were being cute on the 1st, so I thought I should highlight all 3 of them:

Saturday, I went to Bonnie Blue Quilt's Warehouse Sale. I'm getting back into quilting, so this was the perfect opportunity to stock up on Civil War prints:

Sunday, Danny took down all the outside lights...and got tangled up a bit:

Some of the other ladies who are doing P365 are taking photos of each family member on their birth day, so today it's Geary (who even smiled for me :) ):

So how are you doing on your P365?

New Year...New Look

2010-01-04T17:33:00.000-06:00

Just updating the look of my tired old blog. I'll be back a little later to share some new photos and give an update on all our doings.

Bye for now~

Back to our regularly scheduled programming!

2008-11-06T13:21:00.003-06:00

Enough of the political nonesense.

Geary got a promotion of sorts in swimming last night. His coach moved him to a new lane so he can swim with the faster swimmers. The coach told Geary that he's good and that in the old lane, he was being held back by the other swimmers. This freaked out Geary a bit. He told me after practice that he couldn't keep up with the other boys. But as I watched practice, he was keeping up with them just fine until the very end. The coach and I talked to Geary after practice and got him to promise to swim with the "better" swimmers for a week and if he didn't like it, he could move back with the "slower" swimmers. I tried to give Geary a pep talk after practice - the whole rah rah you're awesome speech. But I also explained to him that the only way to improve is to swim with the better, faster swimmers. I'm sure he's disappointed because in his old lane, he was the fastest swimmer, but now he's no longer the fastest in his lane. I can understand his hesitation and fear at suddenly not being the best. But I know this will help him in the long run. When I explained to him that it was a promotion from Bronze I to Bronze II and that none of the other kids had been promoted, his eyes lit up! I hope this acts as some motivation to keep him trying hard.

And...just a little layout to pump up my Fly Man!

Credits can be found here at My Scrapbook Art

The hypnotized never lie...

2008-11-04T22:02:00.002-06:00

Do they????

The change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fold, that's all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
'Cause the banners, they were all flown in the last war

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
No, no!

I'll move myself and my family aside
If we happen to be left half alive
I'll get all my papers and smile at the sky
Though I know that the hypnotized never lie
Do ya?

Yeah!

There's nothing in the streets
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Is now parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again
Don't get fooled again
No, no!

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss...

I think Pete is brilliant - and so right.
'Nuff said!

I keep hearing...

2008-11-04T09:54:00.002-06:00

How this is the most important election EVAH! Sorry peeps! About every 10 or 15 years, we hear the same thing. I wasn't able to vote the first time Ronald Reagan was elected President...but it was the most important election ever! Twelve years later, when Bill Clinton was running for President on a "Hopeandchange" message, it was "the most important election ever." Once again, we are hearing it's the most important election ever. EVERY ELECTTION IS IMPORTANT! You (yes, YOU!) should vote in each and every election. Pay attention! Stay involved! Stay connected! It's your right AND duty as an American citizen to vote. It's the only way to affect change. So We Don't Get Fooled Again!

Public Service Announcement

2008-11-03T23:17:00.003-06:00

--everything by Gina Miller. Credits at myscrapbookart.com

No matter your political affiliation, today is the day! Get out and vote! And earn the right to complain about the Government for the next 4 years if your guy doesn't win.

Halloween

2008-11-03T08:46:00.005-06:00

The boys had a really good Halloween. First, they designed their own pumpkins for Dan to carve. I'm not sure who loves this more, the boys or Dan :)

Then they had to pose for Mom...Adam is in character (our little Obi Wan), but I'm not sure where the Ninja-Gangster pose came from...

And Dan couldn't be left out of the "costume" thing, since he was chaperoning:

Where was I? At home passing out candy to the tricksters that came to our door. I probably had about 10 sets of kids come knocking...including this motley crew!

It's great to have a group of friends in the neighborhood that you can run around with!

My favorite trickster of the evening was a little boy - probably about 4 years old - dressed as Darth Vader. When I answered the door, he told me he was worried that vampires had taken over my house because I had "danger signs" in the front yard.

Gotta love the imagination of litte kids.

Overall, it was a great evening for the kids. After trick-or-treating, then spent about 30 minutes down the street jumping on a trampoline...because running around several blocks just isn't enough excercise, is it?

A Lesson in Self Portraits

2008-10-20T14:19:00.008-05:00

or, Why You Shouldn't Leave Your Camera With a 9 Year Old.

Geary had his first swim meet this weekend. It's different from Summer League swimming. The kids are required to "circle in" (circle their number on the Heat Sheets). They are also responsible for getting their Heat Number/Lane Assignment once it's been published. So, being the Mom, I went up to the great hoarde of people to figure out Geary's Heat Numbers and Lane Assignments. I figured it would be safer to leave the camera with him..HA! This is just one of the fun little surprises I found on my camera :)

The swim meet was a huge success! Geary had a fantastic time and did very well. On Saturday he swam the 100 Free, 100 Breaststroke and 50 Butterfly. He even won his heat in the 100 Free! On Sunday, he swam the 50 Free and 50 Breaststroke. The results still haven't been posted, so I don't know the final outcome, but I am a very proud Mama! His coach was really impressed, too. He told me he thought Geary would excel in Breaststroke - which is Geary's favorite stroke!

Here are a few photos. We weren't allowed to use flash inside the Natatorium during the competitions, so it was hard to get good action shots. But, I think these are a good representation:

--Self posed :) Geary wanted to make sure his team cap was showing!

--Waiting for his heat to begin.

--Take your mark!

The Amazing Things You See...

2008-10-17T13:55:00.006-05:00

Or, why I should carry my camera with me at all times!

I was driving to work this morning a little later than normal. As I cut through the neighborhood, I saw a couple walking with their baby. The wife was wearing a Snuggli and the baby was grinning and waving her arms about. They looked like your average, happy family. OK, what so amazing about that? Nothing...except it sets up my next sight. I turn the corner and down the street I see another woman walking. I can see from behind that she also is wearing a Snuggli. As I pass her, I look in my rearview mirror to see the baby, but instead I see...
.

.

.

.

A YORKSHIRE TERRIER!!!!!!

Oh, how I wish I had my camera!

Finally, here's my Sunday photo from my Week in the Life series. Next week, I'll start sharing my completed LO's.

A Week in the Life

2008-10-12T00:12:00.008-05:00

I am a huge fan of Ali Edwards. Her ability to capture the simple things in life really appeals to me. So, I was really excited to follow along on her "Week in the Life" challenge. I have one more day to complete the challenge, but here are some highlights from the first 6 days:

I've really enjoyed carrying around my camera this week. It really got me thinking about all the "things" that I see and do during a week. I'm not sure there is any "normal" week for this family LOL! But, this is as close to what we normally do as any other week.

More blog fun

2008-07-03T22:51:00.002-05:00

Hi there! Nothing new to report today. But I do have this fun quiz I got from The SweetShoppe Blog:

What Your These Fireworks Say About You

You are jubilant and easily excited.

While you aren't very intense or passionate, your happiness is abundant.

You can always find cause to celebrate, laugh, or even just smile to yourself.

You find that life is full of things to be happy about!

The Fireworks Test

Happy 4th to all my family and friends! This weekend I'll bring you photos from the annual Blow Up the Neighborhood Party.

Another fun Quiz

2008-06-24T10:16:00.001-05:00

Here's another fun quiz from my friends over at the Sweet Shoppe Blog

Yeah...not as big a nerd as I thought I'd be. I thought I might get at 75 at least LOL!

Fun Blog Stuff

2008-06-23T12:46:00.002-05:00

We interrupt the regular mutterings to bring you this fun blog post (courtesy of the SweetShoppeDesigns.com Blog

What Your Fridge Says About You

You like to be surrounded by things you love. You aren't exactly greedy, but you can be materialistic at times.
You tend to be a fairly thrifty person. You splurge occasionally, but you're mostly a saver.
You are a very adventurous person. You love to try new things, and you get bored very easily.
You are responsible, together, and mature. You act like an adult, even when you don't feel like it.
You are likely married, possibly with kids.

What Do the Contents of Your Refrigerator Say About You?

OK, not sure how much the "You act like an adult" part fits LOL! But overall, this is a pretty accurate description of our life at home.

2008-06-14T19:15:00.003-05:00

OK, I'm trying to keep this more up-to-date (HAH!)

The boys have been swimming for the neighborhood swim team for the last few weeks. Neither one was a very good swimmer before joining the team. Adam was not comfortable at all in the water unless he could touch the bottom. 4 weeks later, both are fearless!

Geary's favorite stroke is the butterfly:

Adam's favorite stroke is the backstroke:

We won this week 291 - 256! Next week is the Division Meet, then we are done for the summer. Both boys are so happy swimming. It's the best sport we could have put them in. Since they are almost 2 years apart, the will never directly compete against each other (a good thing!), although they do like to compare to see who did better time-wise in their age brackets. I guess I have a couple of competitors :)

Last weekend we went to Texas Motor Speedway with Greg & Shari and their kids to watch the Truck and IRL races. We camped at the track, which made it a whole lot easie with all the kids. I think all the kids had a really good time (including the "big kids" LOL!):

The cousins:

The whole gang at the track:

Greg busting on me:

How Adam spends most of the race:

I'll be back in the next couple days to share some of my more recent layouts.

Weekend Recap

2008-01-07T19:36:00.000-06:00

I had to work on New Year's Eve, so I took last Friday off as a comp. day. Dan and I took the boys to San Antonio to go see The Alamo. Dan had never been and I hadn't been since 1984. It's a little different now. LOL! The Daughters of the Texas Revolution have done a fantastic job restoring the old mission and the long barracks (all that remain of the original Alamo.). Now you can go in the old church (called The Shrine). The Long Barracks have been turned into a Museum. There is a large courtyard with many of the canons that the Texans used to defend themselves against Santa Ana. And of course, a gift shop.

The Shrine:

The guys in front of The Shrine:

Adam and one of the canons. The kid is just nuts for all things Army:

One of the best parts of the day was letting Geary carry around a "big" digital camera. We gave him the old Olympus to use for the day.

Here's one of the photos he took. The composition just cracks me up!

I'm still going strong on the Photo-A-Day challenge. I've posted a link to my Project 365 Flickr album under the Inspirations section. Feel free to check it out!

Finally, I'm going to leave you with a layout. I've started the Body For Life for Women challenge. Part of the program is writing down your personal reasons for following the plan. Since I'm a scrapbooker, I decided to turn it into a layout. Coincidently, it goes along with Emily Falconbridge's new year-long challenge of a word a week to put in an Art Journal. You can read more about it here.

Credits can be found here.

One Word

2008-01-03T19:17:00.001-06:00

I've been a huge fan of Ali Edwards for a long time. The last couple years she's blogged about her one little word. You can read more about it here. This year, I've picked a word that I think will work well for me: PLAY. I want to PLAY more with my kids. I want to PLAY more with my camera. I want to PLAY more with my scrapping. Here's a layout I did in about my word:

Credits can be found here: Play

In the spirit of PLAY, I've started the Project 365 challenge from Photojojo. You can read more about it here. The basic concept is to take (at least) one photo everyday for 365 days. Since this is a leap year, I guess that makes it Project 366...LOL! Here are my first 3 photos:

Jan01: Our family walk on New Year's Day

Gas price on the day oil hit $100/barrel

My desk at work:

7 for 2007

2008-01-02T19:33:00.000-06:00

A new year and a new effort to document our (somewhat boring) life here in Texas. You never know what you may find here, but I hope it's entertaining :)

I saw this thread on MSA a few weeks ago about posting your top 7 photos for 2007. I thought it would be a piece of cake. HAH! My first pass through my 2007 photos garnered 62 photos! I finally whittled it down to my top 7 (with 7 runners-up). So here you go with the Top 7. Tomorrow I'll post my runner-up photos:

Layouts and such

2007-02-09T19:08:00.000-06:00

Since I haven't posted since last June, I thought I would post some of my more recent layouts. Tonight I'm featuring layouts using stuff from the FABULOUS Lucy Marino :
Here are the boys waiting in line to visit Santa Claus. I thought it turned out a lot better than the Santa photo!

credits can be found here: Christmas 2006

This was done for Susan's FAB

Check it out Here :

And, probably my most favorite layout right now - eating Sushi on my anniversay!

credits can be found here: I Want Sushi!

This was done for another FAB Blog:

You can see the latest dare Here

Tomorrow, I'll post layouts from Melissa Bennett!

Long time no talk!

2007-02-09T17:31:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm baaaackkkkk....
I've got lots to start posting about, but first, here's a fun little quiz I got from Sweet Shoppe Blog

You Are a Chocolate Chip Cookie

Traditional and conservative, most people find you comforting.
You're friendly and easy to get to know. This makes you very popular - without even trying!

What Kind of Cookie Are You?

Next, I got selected to be on 2 AWESOME creative teams:

Lucy Marino:

and Melissa Bennett:

I've got some really kewl layouts to post, but not right now. Hope you come back and read about our family exploits in the coming days!

Scrapping up a storm!

2006-06-21T21:37:00.000-05:00

The one of the best things I can say about Stacy Julian's class at BPS (so far!) is that I'm starting to feel the mojo working again! Woohoo! After tagging all my layouts, I found that I am seriously lacking in the "Places We Go" category. My W's are pretty well split, so I decided to concentrate on the "Why." For me, that is the most difficult. So I present you my class layout:

Papers - Happy Stripes and Flowers by Michelle Coleman (scrapartist.com); Fonts -CK Grocery List (journaling), Mailart Ruberstamp (Title); Sketch: Scrapbook Shortcuts (SS mag), pg. 54

The boys were seriously concerned with where I was "living" while I was traveling...The things children are worried about!

Another funny thing I noticed - I tend to leave off the "who" in certain layouts. Like I assume the viewer knows who is in the photos. Not such a good idea if my great-grandkids are looking at the scrapbook and are trying to figure out which one is Grandpa Geary and which one is Great-Uncle Adam!

I also did another layout for the Simply You Challenge at Scrapartist. This is for week 25 - Cooking. I love to cook. I also love teaching the boys how to cook. A couple weeks ago I had Dan take these pictures of me & the boys making Dinner (Coffee Spice Rubbed Rib Eyes, From Bobby Flay's Boy Meets Grill). Mmmmmm.

Papers - Chelsey's Dream by Michelle Coleman (scrapartist.com); Fonts -CK Shannon List (journaling), Dirty Headline(Title); Sketch: Scrapbook Shortcuts (SS mag), pg. 78

Both of these layouts can be seen in my gallery at Scrapartist.

A Whacky Weekend

2006-06-20T10:07:00.000-05:00

I had this perfect Father's Day Weekend planned for Danny. I was supposed to entertain the kids for most of the weekend so he could do whatever he wanted (build models, mostly). It was supposed to be in return for my Mother's Day "day of peace." Of course, things never turn out exactly as planned.

Danny has decided that he wants to can japalenos and other hot peppers. I bought him a canning pot (it's gigantic), the metal ring insert & various tools to encourgae his new endeavor. Saturday he canned 5 jars of jalapenos. Nice! Sunday, we go out for more jalapenos and tomatoes. Tomatoes, because we're going to have fajitas for dinner and I want fresh pico de gallo! So, after all our running around, I tell Danny I want to take a little nap - I'm feeling a little tired. After that, the boys and I were going to make our special Father's Day gift. Well, 2 hours later I wake up. Yes, my wonderful man let me sleep! I get up to see what the kids are doing outside. As soon as I stepped out the back door, my left foot collapsed under me and I fell HARD on the ground and promptly starting crying! Geary rides up on his bike and just stares at me crying on the ground. He finally went to get Danny. Between Danny & Geary, they got me up and helped me back into the house. There went all hopes of Father's Day peace. I spent the rest of the day planted on the sofa.

I went to the doctor on Monday and was diagnosed with a Stage 2 sprain (on a scale of 1 - 4). The kicker - I did the same thing exactly 3 years ago! No kidding! My doctor & I had a good laugh about that! I am supposed to rest, keep my foot elevated and wear an Ace bandage for compression. It feels a lot better today, but I still have a hard time moving around. Fortunately, I can work from home. It's just as easy to yell at Oracle from the comfort of my own home as it is to yell at them in my office {wink, wink}

Laughing at Memories

2006-06-10T23:57:00.000-05:00

OK, so I'm taking Stacy Julian's Library of Memories class. Right now, I'm organizing my photos - both digital and print. I thought my photos were fairly well organized... NOT! There is some method to my madness, but it really is organized chaos! So, as I'm going through my print photos, I find a picture from Christmas of the year my son Adam was born (he was born just a couple days before Christmas). This brought back memories of sitting in my DMIL's house with a 3-day-old baby and laughing my head off! (Ok, I thought I was going to split my stitches, I was laughing so hard!) My SIL and her husband brought a game for all of us to play on Christmas Day (a family tradition). We sat in the front room of my DMIL's house being super loud and rowdy playing Balderdash, while my 3-day-old baby slept! Yes! That boy slept through the entire commotion! All this prompted this layout:

Papers - Michelle Coleman( scrapartist.com); Cards - Balderdash, courtesy of Parker Brothers; Fonts - CK Printer (Ali Edwards), Nicotine Stains

I'm a bad blogger

2006-06-07T20:40:00.000-05:00

I've been so neglecting my blog lately. Bad Mel...Bad Mel!

Well, the big news is I'm in Stacy Julian's Library of Memories class (which starts tomorrow!). I couldn't be happier! I'm in serious need of inspiration and advice on how to organize my layouts. I've got so few printed out for our albums. I've printed a lot of layouts for la familia, but not much for us. There are 3 digi-scrappers (admitted) signed up...included Lisa Cohen from Scrapartist! Kewl beans!
And - I got my copy of Ali Edwards' font CD - more happiness on my part! So I did this layout using 2 of the fonts from her CD:

Papers - Katie Pertiet (designerdigitals.com), brushes - Michelle Coleman( scrapartist.com), bookplate - Gina Cabrera (digitaldesignessentials.com), Vivid Color and Chocolate filters from PhotoBlast, Fonts - CK Painterly, CK Printer (Ali's Fonts), High Strung

This came about from a dinner conversation last week. Kids say the darndest things! This is the first layout I've been able to create in over a month. Don't know where my mojo went - I just hope it's returned! I hope I can get back to my creative ways. I sure miss scrapping!

I'm Back!

2006-05-07T00:16:00.000-05:00

Whew!
Back from a long trip overseas. I'm exhausted. It was 15 hour days in a window-less room. But, at the end, I got to spend a free day in London. The highlight of my tour -- getting my photo taken with a Beefeater at the Tower of London.

More of my excellent adventure later...Hope you all have had a great NSD!

I'm a Happy Girl

2006-04-20T23:20:00.000-05:00

Could a girl be any happier?!?
Now I've got some excellent reading material for my trip to Aberdeen this weekend!

Oh, and if you're reading...I had a FAB conversation with my cousin Stacy tonight! We just don't get to talk enough! It was fun just to talk about fun stuff like KISS (yes, I love that band!) and sports and when she's going to come to Texas so we can get into some serious trouble together! Love ya, girl!

Studio Friday - My Working Hands

2006-04-15T12:01:00.000-05:00

I really loved this topic. I got my boys to help with me with this shot. It's pretty representative of what I do at the keyboard. Check out other work at Studio Friday

Random Thoughts

2006-04-13T21:35:00.000-05:00

Do you remember that little piece on Saturday Night Live? Deep Thoughts by Jack Handy. Anyway, that came to mind because of current events. I live in Houston, Texas. And most of you probably know what the number one topic of conversation is...that's right! The Big, crooked E of Enron! Jeff Skilling, former CEO, has been on the witness stand all week. It certainly has been entertaining. Today, Jeff Skilling was quoting Mr. Bill from SNL..."OH NOOOOOOOO! It's Mr. Bill!" In a nutshell...I think the guy is delusional! I think he really believes the crap that he is spewing. So I want to know (heavy sarcasm alert!)...can you convict a guy for lying to and deceiving investors if he doesn't believe that he did anything wrong?!? My favorite quote (from today's testimony)"His take on broadband: 'We made a mistake. It wasn't big. It was a billion dollars.' " Hmmm. Last time I looked, $1 billion was kinda a big number. Maybe I'm the one who is delusional! If you want some fun, you can read these 2 blogs for the latest on the trial:
Loren Steffy's Blog Loren is a busines writer for the Houston Chronicle. His blog can be opinionated. But, the comments are priceless. If you have time, go back to the beginning of the week when Jeff first got on the stand. There is also the Trial Watch blog, which gives more of a blow-by-blow account of testimony.
Trial Watch

So in my blog readings, I came across this really FUN site on Kim Christensen's blog. It's called the Advertising Slogan Generator here Wow! Is this a TOTAL time waster, or what?!? My favorite so far is "This is the Age of The Melissa!" Or, how about "I like the Melissa so much, I bought the company!" Of course, I had to put Dan's name and got this beautiful gem "Where Dan is a pleasure." No comment!!!!!!!!

So, I just have to vent about my two little monsters! I really would like whoever stole my sweet little boys to return them. Because I have to tell you, the substitutes that were left in their places are MONSTERS! To be fair, Danny is out of town until Easter Sunday. And, they have been wonderful up until tonight. Now, I could blame it on all the sugar from their parties this afternoon. But let's face it...that's not really the problem. They are just rambuncious boys! Get over it girl! Besides, they can only be perfect for so long before they revert to their evil ways {big grin}! OK, I feel better!

And to end this on a positive note. I got my email notification today from Simple Scrapbooks that they've charged my cc for Cathy Z's new book! Woohoo! I'm hoping this means it'll arrive before I have to leave for Aberdeen again. And a big thanks to Miss Kim for pointing out Ali Edwards' new book and font CD over on CK's website. I've got both of those on pre-order now, too! Blessed are the enablers!

God bless all of you this most wonderful Holiday weekend!

Chugga Chugga Big Red Car!

2006-04-09T21:37:00.000-05:00

Woohoo! The Big Red Car won today! Kasey Kahne (ooh, isn't he just the cutest kid you've ever seen!) won at Texas Motor Speedway in fine fashion! He drives a red Dodge Charger if you are unfamiliar with NASCAR!

I have to say, it was very strange to be home this weekend and not up at the track. This is the first time in 3 years that we have not gone up for at least the Saturday Busch race. The weekend started off with a BANG! with Kasey winning the pole for Sunday's race. Then, my man Smoke (Tony Stewart) came through a WILD IROC race to win. So here we are on Friday night, watching the race, when Smoke wins. I turn to Danny and say (OK, whine...) "It figures. We don't go up for the race and Smoke wins. And climbs the fence RIGHT WHERE WE WOULD BE SITTING!" OK...I was just a little bummed!

Then, to add insult to injury, Mario Batalli was on Trackside after the IROC race. Mario is one of the Iron Chef's on Food Network. And he happens to be Adam's favorite chef! Go figure!

But, in the long run, it was OK. Because the most despised driver in the world won the Busch race on Saturday. I just don't know how depressing it would have been if I had been there to see Kurt Busch (ugh!) win! Plus, he did that stupid snow angel again. What's with that?!? It was only mildly amusing a couple weeks ago in Bristol since it had been snowing all weekend. But...it was 75 degrees and gorgeous in Ft. Worth all weekend.

So you might wonder why we didn't go. Well, Danny is leaving for a Cartridge Show in St. Louis tomorrow. (Cartridges are bullets...that's another story). I think I might have talked him into going for the IROC and Busch races if we hadn't had all the car problems last week. I'm really OK with it. We're going to go up in November for the whole weekend. We're going to rent an RV and camp at the track. We did that last November and had a total Blast!

Everything from Gina Cabrera:Papers, staple - Beach Blues, Negative Strip, Adventure tag - Road Trip

See...it was worth reading about NASCAR because I did bring it around to scrapping {wink, wink}. So, congrats to all the winners this weekend!

Victory Lane photos courtesty of Texas Motor Speedway.

Just your average Saturday

2006-04-09T00:41:00.000-05:00

We had a GLORIOUS day today! The weather could not have been better. The sun was shining, there was no humidity and it was probably 65 degrees! I just love spring in Houston! We spent the morning outside working on the yard. The kids and I moved everything off the back patio and blew off all the leaves and CRAP that had accumulated over the winter. While we were doing this, Danny was mowing and edging the front yard. The kids LOVE using the blower...they fight over who gets to use it! So, Adam got to blow off the patio, Geary got to blow off the driveway.

I got some new photo filters from PhotoBlast today after reading Miss Kim's blog. I had heard about these filters before, but I had forgotten about them. Ooh, they are kewl! I wish I could drop $75 on the entire set...but it's just not in the budget this month. Of course, I'm an instant gratification kind of girl, so I just bought the ones I REALLY wanted: Dark Chocolate, Vivid Color, Color Wash and Midnight Color. I used the Vivid Color effect on a layout I did this evening (see below).
Tonight, Kim Christiansen hosted a chat at sbb with Michelle Coleman (a total genious in designing, IMHO). Michelle gave out a free kit that was PERFECT for my Azalea layout.

Paper squares: Tutti Frutti (chat Freebie)
Mini Tags: Ligter Shades of Pale
Antiquated Swirl Brushes
All by Michelle Coleman at ScrapArtist
PhotoBlast Vivid Color Effect
Font: Susie's Hand

Then I whipped over to ScrapArtist to see what I've been missing in the Simply You challenge. Well, I missed Jess' chat last week, but I thought I might just make it for the bonus challenge "Describe your life now in lyrics." I chose Kenney Chesney's "The Woman With You". It's a fabulous song and always makes me cry when I hear it on the radio. OK...I'm a sap! But it's such a great song for me.

Virtual Photographer Ambience filter
Fonts: Times New Roman, Monika
Lyrics - Kenny Chesney's The Woman With You (courtesy lyrics.astraweb.com)

So, it's probably time to head off to bed. Tomorrow...more on the races up at Texas Motor Speedway.

Kids say the darndest things!

2006-04-07T06:34:00.000-05:00

Dinner conversation:

Geary: Mommy, were you alive during the 80’s?
Me: Yes
Geary: Were you a tiny baby?
Me: No. I was a grown up.
Geary: Wow, Mommy. You’re really old.
Sigh!

I think he’s talking about the 80’s at school. His 1st grade teacher is ONLY 24 years old. She was BORN the year I graduated from high school. How old does that make me feel? ANCIENT!

I got invited to a National Scrapbook Day event with my paper scrapping friends (they think my stuff looks very real!). OK, so they're all into Creative Memories and will probably never leave, but to each his own, right? Anyway, I'm bummed because I'll be on a plane home from Aberdeen. My girlfriend said that I should have Danny bring my stuff over and set it up for me so that when I get off the plane, I can go directly over there for a little scrapping!

So, have you seen Shabby Princess' new stuff? Love that new kit!

Tonight’s meal:
Meatloaf “Muffins”
Mac ‘n Cheese
Green Beans with Bacon
--Courtesy of Rachael Ray’s 30 minute Meals

This woman is a whiz when it comes to quick&easy, yummy meals! It may take me a little longer than 30 minutes to make a dinner, but it’s never more than 45 minutes. Everything I’ve tried from her cookbooks or online recipes have been delicious! The best part is the boys LOVE to help out in the kitchen. AJ has decided that when he grows up he wants to be a chef on “Iron Chef America.” I’m not kidding! It’s his favorite show on TV (except for maybe the “Doodlebops” on Disney). And, if you ask Geary who his favorite Iron Chef is, he’ll tell you his brother Adam (awww…that’s just too sweet. Is that really my son saying that?!?)

I owe, I owe, so it's off to work I go!

Finally a normal day

2006-04-04T22:06:00.000-05:00

Whew! Things are finally returning to normal - or at least what I call normal! I finally got some time to scrap! Tonight when we came home, the boys decided they wanted to play upstairs. I'm not really sure why...but I wasn't going to question it. So I sat myself down in front of the computer and scrapped! It took me about three hours (with a few misteps along the way), but I did finally complete a page for Susan's DigiScrapLift blog. I showed this to Danny and he was very happy with it (he said this is one of his favorite pics of the boys). But, the original journaling was too serious for such a fun layout. Then he said "wasn't there a band..." I immediately knew he was talking about Men Without Hats. I've always loved the song "Safety Dance." I'm not sure why. It's just one of those weird 80's songs that I just love. But it was perfect for the fun layout I had in mind. So here it is...Boyz Without Goggles:

Papers, word pepples: Mindy Terasawa's Playful kit(sweetshoppedesigns, Stitching: Sara Carling's Aero kit (also at sweetshoppedesigns), Staples - Shabby Princess' Signature Collection, Mini Tag - Spring Fling Kit Digital Design Essentials Spring/Summer CD, Font - President, Lyrics - Safety Dance by Men Without Hats (courtesy of lyrics.astraweb.com), Scraplift of OliveJuice's Character layout at the shabbyshoppe(also as seen on Susan' DigiScrapLift Blog)

A Very Crappy Week (and Weekend)

2006-04-03T19:59:00.000-05:00

Well, that had to be one of the crappiest weekends in quite some time. Have you ever felt like everything is just pounding down on you and it just won’t stop? I’ve got to vent somewhere, so this is as good a place as any to get out my frustrations. It all started about a month ago. Danny and I thought we would refinance our house to get some of the equity out so we could replace the siding on our house and garage. Our house is 35 years old and it’s just time. We’ve got some damage on the second story and we want to get it fixed before the rainy season starts. Anyway, we got hooked up with some real scheisters. Have you ever had this feeling in your gut that something is just not right? First, they wanted me to get someone from my old company to lie about me still working there and that my prospects for continuing employment were good. Of course, I said “NO!” The issue was I hadn’t received my first check from my new company, so they couldn’t prove employment. I was a contractor prior to March, so my contract agreement wasn’t good enough for them (clue number 2). Then, we kept getting the run-around on what our interest rate was going to be. It kept going up – and it was a lot higher than I thought it should be. Then, documents we were supposed to sign came with a separate signature sheet (clue number3). So, we get down to the day we’re supposed to close and Danny starts looking at the HUD form – the one that itemizes your closing costs. OMG! The points were astronomical! He starts doing some research on the web (our friend Google to the rescue) and he starts finding these hits on predatory lenders. The stories are horrible. I could go on for hours about what these people do. Danny calls me about 30 minutes before I was supposed to leave to meet him and he says, we can’t do this. They’re charging 5 points. Yes, you read that correctly – 5 points! We back out, tell them they’re full of crap if they think we’re going to pay 5 points, but thank you, no way! A couple days later, we get all the loan documentation in the mail – you know, the forms we would have signed if we had gone through with the loan and not only had the 5 points bumped our interest rate up 5 %, but they were giving us a variable rate loan, not fixed like in all the documentation we had previously received from them. There was a loan payment schedule in the documentation, too. The monthly rate they had been quoting us was the payment for the last 25 years of the loan – the previous 5 would have been quite a bit lower. My guess is that they would not have applied the extra amount to the principle, they would have kept it for themselves. There was also a clause that said that we would not receive a reduction in the interest if we paid early. I’m not sure what that means, but I would guess it means we would still be liable for the full amount of the interest, even if we paid ahead. All I can say is that God was looking out for us! We narrowly missed getting sucked into something we probably would have ended up losing our house over. We are putting all the documentation together to send to the Texas Attorney General’s Office to file an official complaint. Hopefully, they can keep this company from screwing someone who isn’t as alert. The moral of the story is: make sure you know who you’re doing business with. And – make sure you check all the documentation before you sign ANYTHING!!!!!!!

That was the first thing. The loan documentation came on Thursday. Friday morning, Danny calls me at work first thing to tell me the Check Engine light came on in his truck and it’s starting to over-heat. Oh great! I meet him at the dealership and get him home, thinking we won’t need a loaner car – he can just work from home. $1200 later – it’s a new radiator, 60,000 mile check up, flush the oil system, new throttle body and a few other random things. Sheesh! The 60,000 mile check up was planned – Danny is taking a road trip in a couple weeks – but the rest was completely unexpected. But I’m glad it happened here at home, instead of on the road.

To bring this sad tale of woe to an end, we went Saturday morning to pick up the truck and guess what? My van starts making funny noises. Like the left front tire/brake is making this horrible grinding noise! No brake light coming on; no warning. We’re thinking, do we ignore this or do we go ahead and have them check it out? So, we trade out vehicles at the dealership (we both have Toyotas) and have them look at my van. Now, my pretty little thing has 128,000 miles on it. She’s just getting to middle age. I haven’t had to put that much money into her, but boy does she eat through the brakes! You guessed it – I need both front and rear brakes. AND, the rear brake drums need to be replaced. Oh, and by the way, the seals on the engine cylinders are leaking and should be replaced. I was ready to have a nervous breakdown when he told me all that! So I played “Let’s Make a Deal” with the guy – to find out what HAD to be done immediately, versus what could wait a couple weeks. I’m getting new front brakes and in the next month I’ll bring the old girl back to finish the work. I’m telling you, when it rains, it pours!

I did, however, try to make myself feel better by spending an obscene amount of money on scrapbooking kits J I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but here’s a pretty close rundown of my purchases:
Jen Wilson: I’ve started on her “Stories” collection. I have all 4 kits so far. I also picked up a couple other pieces of the Spring Decor Collection that I missed the first go-round. I am a complete nut for Jen’s stuff!
Shabby Princess: It’s been along time since I bought anything from her. But when I got an email about the Moroccan Sunrise Kit at ACOT, I thought I’d check out the Shabby Shoppe, too. I picked up several pieces from her – Silly Boy Nut-Nut, IN the Groove, Surf Club PP, Tickle-icious, For the Boys by Holly McCaig , and Authentic by Sara Carling
A Cherry on Top: I got SP’s Moroccan Sunrise and Trish Jones’ Life's Desire
Sweete Shoppe: Aero and Splendor by Sara Carling; Amy Jo and Playful by Mindy Terasawa
Sbbytes: Trish Jones kits: DownNOut, Shutdown (both from the Down with Paper collection), Circuit and Round from the Scrapcircuit collection
Jasbeanie: Spring Blossoms and Urban Chic Paper Packs
ScrapArtist: Handsome – the Combo kit with Ronna Penner and Emma’s Sundress by Michelle Coleman
Designs by Dani: Fresh Air and Sassy Pants kits

So now I’ve got all these kits that I need to organize and start using. I think I’ve exceeded my allotment for the next few months ;) But, of course, there are still others I just “have” to have. Those will need to wait until the van gets fixed ;)

I found some older pictures of my boys that I forgot I had. When Danny & I first started using a digital camera, it never occurred to us to keep the original photo somewhere. He would crop the photo, load it on his website and that would be it. We lost a lot of photos from those early days L So, here is one of the boys “helping” Daddy do some work in my sewing room. They were playing beneath my sewing table (the little goofballs!).

I also found this photo of me and the boys from our first spring in the house (March/April 2002). Here we are in front of the house with our Azaleas in full bloom! I love azaleas – they’re beautiful. I just wish they’d bloom longer than a couple weeks. My azaleas have already come and gone this year L. But, they were beautiful as always! Azaleas are BIG in Houston! Every year the River Oaks Garden Society puts on the “Azalea Trail.” It’s usually the first 2 weekends in March. It’s a chance for people to view how the “other half” live ;) It’s about $10 and you get to view the homes and gardens of 10 residents. Most of these people live in River Oaks – one of our most expensive neighborhoods. If you saw Terms of Endearment, it’s the ‘hood that Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson lived in. Anyway, this year it was so warm in February the gardeners were putting ice on the roots of the azalea plants so they wouldn’t bloom too soon! Now it’s time for the bluebonnets, buttercups, Indian paintbrushes and all the other wildflowers that bloom in the springtime in Texas. Maybe this weekend I can convince Danny to go for a ride so we can take pictures before they’re gone!

So now I’ve got a couple pictures to scrap that I like, I’ve got a lot of nice new kits to scrap with and a much better attitude so I guess I’d better get after it, eh?

Whaz Up?

2006-03-30T20:08:00.000-06:00

OK, so Becky (webchyck) reminded me that I have not posted in my blog since I got the new job. Point taken. I haven’t done much since I got the new job. It’s not that I’m working lots of hours (I’m not); I’m just EXHAUSTED at the end of the day. I forgot what it feels like to put in a full day at the office! It’s a great job: The people I work with are super nice. The work is interesting. I’m more a Project Manager now. Before I was your everyday support person for Oracle Financials. Now I’m running an implementation project in Aberdeen, Scotland. YES! I get to travel! I’ve made one trip to Aberdeen already, and I’m going back again right after Easter (for 2 weeks!). Then, about every 2 months, I’ll be making a trip over there for 2 weeks at time. Dan is pretty cool with this. I mean, this is a HUGE opportunity for me professionally. But it is also a HUGE change in routine for all of us – Dan, me, the boys. Fortunately, through the power of the Internet, we were able to chat on IM over the weekend I was gone. I was also able to send pictures home to the boys, which seemed to help. The funny thing is what they wanted to see pictures of – my hotel room! They really didn’t care about seeing me in front of an old church; they wanted to see my hotel and my room

OMG! Let me tell you how COLD it was there! This poor little southern girl just didn’t have the wardrobe for this type of trip. Fortunately, my wonderful, beautiful, ever-practical mother-in-law had a wool coat from when she used to live in Connecticut that she let me borrow. It was perfect! So, armed with her coat, a hat I’ve had since forever and a pair of gloves, I made it through a week of snow. There was 18” of snow on the ground and it snowed the first 5 days we were there. The locals swore that it was the worst winter they’d had in 3 years – I DON’T BELIEVE THEM!

One of the things I realized when I took this job is that I don’t have the right kind of wardrobe. Here in the States, we’re Business Casual. But in the UK, they are much more formal. Plus, it’s so much colder than it is here in Texas. So, my trusty Bernina has started to hum. For the first trip, I made 1 Navy jacket, 1 pair of Navy Wool Crepe pants and 1 Dark Gray top. They don’t necessarily coordinate with each other; they just filled in some missing pieces so I didn’t have to pack an enormous amount of clothing! I also have 1 jacket and 1 pair of pants that are almost completed for the next trip and 1 lighter weight coat cut out and ready to assemble. I’ve got fabric picked out for some new wardrobe pieces. Not all of this will get made before I leave – there just isn’t enough time. But it gives me a good plan for the rest of the year. I’ve also got some great inspiration for a couple skirts I want to make for later in the year (to wear here in Houston, not in the UK)

I saw the whole collection in Foley’s when I went in to get new makeup (another story). This is why I sew – I can’t justify spending $150 for a skirt, no matter how cute it is, if I then have to take the time to alter it because it’s too long. And, the amount I would have to alter it would ruin the proportion of the skirts. So I can make these with 2 patterns in my stash, adding the ruffle--for about $50 in fabric. Pretty good deal, if you ask me!

OK, so I haven’t scrapped in FOREVER! I haven’t even been on scrapbook-bytes, scrapartist or any of my other favs. SHAMEFUL! I haven’t even read all the blogs I used to read! So first thing I did was look around and see what’s going on! Wow! The things in the stores are just amazing! Plus all the new layouts on Susan’s DigiScraplift blog, the All About Me and Heritage Challenges at Scrapartist. Whew! Great stuff going on! Go check it out! So now, I’m started to feel the urge to scrap again. That and Dan asked me for the page that I made of him and the boys modeling together. Hmm? What’s that you say? You’re right! I never got around to doing that page for him. What kind of person am I? J So now I’m back checking out the stores at all my favorite places to see if I can find something PERFECT to use for this long overdue layout for my boys! Wish me luck!

WooHoo! I'm Employed!

2006-01-19T19:51:00.000-06:00

Whew! I got a job offer today from the company I had hoped would offer me a job. I interviewed with them on Monday and it felt so comfortable and meant for me. Today, they offered me a very generous offer! I'm so relieved. Of course, this means I have to give up my lady's life of leisure (LOL!) I think the thing I'll miss the most is the whole SAHM thing. I never thought I would enjoy that lifestyle, but in a way I do. I enjoyed the quality time I had with my oldest son, Geary. I got to help him with his homework everyday when he came home from school. But, he misses being at the daycare after school. His little brother Adam is there and they miss seeing each other in the afternoon. I miss the independence of having my own money...asking dh for money is not something I'm used to doing. Well...

In NASCAR news, my boy DJ was fastest in morning drafting practice on Wednesday! Go 88! We want you to race the truck! We LOVE the truck! LOL! Maybe this will be his year to win his 4th Daytona 500. The surprise of testing, to me, has to be Sterling Marlin. He's in an under-funded team. Maybe that's not entirely fair. He's not racing for one of the Super-Mega teams, so he doesn't have the funding he may be used to. Although he's not the "fastest", he's been consistently at the top of the speed charts during testing. Might be a good sleeper pick to win his 3rd 500. And what about Smoke? Will he have good luck at the 500 this year. Tony doesn't normally have good luck at Daytona in February. All I can say is it's 30 days until the Daytona 500 (and my wedding anniversary). BTW, where did I spend my honeymoon? At the Daytona 500 baby!

Photo taken in the backstretch (superstretch) hospitality area). My best friend worked for Square D at the time, so she was able to get us into the hospitality area for the Busch and Cup races.

And in scrapping news...I did finish my latest addition to the Simply You Challenge at Scrapartist. I used Kim's 2-page sketch to do this layout.

Everything from Kim Christensen's Casablanca kit (alpha's re-papered)
Photos from the Internet (some from the Italian Tourist Board)
Font - Albermarle Swash, McGanahan
Layout based on Kim Christensen's 2-page sketch 1-18-06

Oh, and doesn't Kim have the cutest stuff in the sbb store? As soon as my first paycheck comes in, I'm gonna be buying more of her stuff!

2006-01-19T10:49:00.000-06:00

It's been a little crazy the last couple days. Looking for a job does that to a person! I had a wonderful interview with a local company on Monday and I am on pins and needles waiting to hear if they want to hire me. I don't want to get too excited about it, because of the disappointment that would follow if they decide to hire someone else. But, it seems like a good fit. Besides, one of the people I interviewed with followed a similar path to me...working in accounting for many years, then switching to IT. We also have several acquaintances in common. Talk about a Small World. I have a couple other leads, but nothing that sounds as promising as this job. Besides, it's very close to my house - I wouldn't even have to get on the Freeway to go to work. How cool is that? Well, I'm leaving it in God's (and the CIO's) hands and letting go of the worry. Can't do anything else about it, right?!? Any prayers you want to send my way would be greatly appreciated!

I went to 2 crops last night at sbb. I haven't done any crops in a Looooooong time! It was a total blast. If you get a chance, you need to stop by the 2006 Autumn Leaves Calendar Challenge. The women who host are a total blast! It's not a speed crop, either. You have until Saturday to post your layout, which leaves more time for chatting :) After the AL crop, I stayed for Kim's 2-page sketch crop. Another really fun, non-stressful crop. Kim gives you a 2-page sketch and you have a week to post a layout. More time for chatting and getting to know your fellow digital scrappers. Come on by next week and say "Hi!"

Although I didn't get any scrapping done during the crops last night, I have done a couple new layouts. I combined challenges for this first one. I've been following the Heritage Challenge over at Scrapartist. Robyn posts a new challenge each week. And of course, my current fancy with Susan's Digi Scraplift. So Voila! My parents wedding photo from 1961:

Stitching - Shabby Princess, Background Papers, Brushes - Lighter Shades of Pale Michelle Coleman @ scrapartist, Lace - Roundabout Traci Simms @ scrapbook-elements, Fonts - Jeana, President, McGanahan, Filter - Virtual Photographer Radiant

And I had this layout I did last week of my parents at Christmas:

Papers - Signature 01 (jenwilsondesigns.com), Schmootzy Frame #2 - Nancie Rowe Janitz scrapartist.com, Fonts - MA Sexy (Title), High Strung, Scraplift of Jen Wilson's Layout, I am your sister, brother and friends at sbb.

So, my plan for the AL Challenge for this week is to combine the photos into one layout. I'll probably head over to Scrap-Maps to see what Bree has on her site for sketches.

I also participated in the current Photography Challenge at sbb. It's titled Reflections. I took this photo back in 1997..specifically going for the reflection because I had seen something similar in a Travel Book. The other interesting thing about this photo is that it was one of the few views where you couldn't see the construction going on around the Chateau. Many of the Chateaux in the Loire Valley were undergoing repairs in 1997.

Chateau Azay le Rideau, Loire Valley France
I used a Pentax K-1000 35mm, 200 speed film. Sorry, I don't remember any of the other settings.

That's it for now...I've got my "Honey-Do" list to try and tackle, especially if I want to scrap later before my oldest gets home from school

A Scrapping Fool

2006-01-17T15:13:00.000-06:00

I've been a scrapping fool the last couple days. It probably comes from me trying to get over not getting a call for SS5 or a Creative Team I thought I wanted to be on. (But that's a discussion for another time). Instead, I decided to put my energy to much better use (thanks to blog entries by Becky (webchyck) and various links from there. )
During my blurfing (thanks for coining that wonderful phrase, Becky), I have found a WONDERFUL site called Digi-Scraplift. The wonderful Susan started this blog with a different lift most days. She puts the challenge up for herself, but has invited anyone who cares to to join in the fun. I've done two challenges so far:

Merry Christmas from the Family:

So how many of you know that HYSTERICAL Robert Earle Keene song? If not, you should check it out. He's a local legend here in Texas. And a total blast in concert. Credits: Papers, Ribbbons, Tag, Brad: Dianne Rigdon at scrapartist
Clippie: Michelle Coleman at scrapartist
Metal Alpha: Jen Wilson at scrapbook-bytes.
Fonts are Pharmacy & President

Peek-A-Boo:

My youngest was playing around with me when I snapped this picture. I really didn't know what to do with it until I saw Susan's lift challenge. It's a lift of Sarah's Love that Grin layout at 2peas. Check it out! Credits: Papers, Vellum Tag - Gina Miller's Joy of Scrapping MudPie Kit (sbbytes)
Book Plate, rivet - Jen Wilson's Grass Stains Elements (sbbytes)
Stitching - Katie Pertiet's Messy Stitching (re-colored) DesignerDigitals
Fonts - Stamp Act Jumbled (Title), President (Date)

Hooray for Testing!

2006-01-16T19:42:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm thankful that NASCAR testing has begun. It means that there are only 33 days until the Daytona 500! Man, it just can't happen soon enough! So, from last week's testing, the fastest by manufacturer:
Jeff Gordon (Chevy) 188.466
Elliott Sadler (Ford) 187.594
Jeremy Mayfield (Dodge) 186.521

Other notables: Smoke did not test his own car, Mike McLaughlin did (could it be because of Smoke's injured wrist?). Bobby Labonte was lighting up the track in the King's car. Ken Schrader wasn't too bad in the Wood Brothers' Car and poor Kenny Wallace just didn't get his car up to speed during practice.

There was practice today for the other half of the field with Sterling Marlin, Scott Riggs & Jamie McMurray fastest of the Chevy, Dodge and Ford drivers. We'll see how things go the rest of the week.

If you want to keep up with this a little more closely, Jayski has links with up-to-date stats on testing.

Welcome!

2005-07-10T16:38:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Mel's Mutterings. I just thought I'd get on the blogging band wagon. This will be my little spot to muse on my crafts: scrapbooking, sewing, photography. Plus other things of interest: books, music, politics and, of course, NASCAR. I hope you'll stop by and say hello and give me your comments!