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Thursday, July 31, 2008

Some layouts for my mom

A few years ago, my sister and I made a scrapbook for our mom of various things our families were doing and things we did with her. On special occassions we add to her book, because (gasp) she is not a scrapbooker. I know...it's quite shocking. Here are some uber simple layouts I made to give her when she visits tomorrow. We are going to the CK convention this weekend! Yeah!


This is a layout from the ALS walk we participate in annually. The shoes are a cut from the cricut My community cartridge.


These cuts are from paper pups. The lettering is Alphalicious I think. My mom and step dad recently got a dog (I don't have pictures of this) so I made a layout for her to add the photos to. TFL






Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Happy Birthday!


Today is my birthday and I had a wonderful day. Here is a picture that my daughter took of me blowing out the candles on the lemon pie my friend made. She waiting until my face got in it...LOL I spent the day swimming with the kids, and hanging out with my friends. My dad took the day off and came out to spend it with me and when my hubby got home we all went for Japanese food. YUM
Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Just Write Tuesday #14

Bare with me as I attempt to type on a laptop with a mind of it's own. It has some strange cursor issue and it is pushing me over the edge. My cursor is bouncing from one word to another like a little dancing line. It's beyond irratating.

When Samson was nine years old his father died in a car accident. He knew it was going to happen five days before it did.

"I don't think you should drive to work today," he told his dad, who shrugged off his warning and told him that for such a young lad he had grown up concerns.

"I'll see you later," he said, "We'll have supper just like always."

When his mom got the call later that evening about the accident, Samson didn't wait around for her to break the news. He ran upstairs. He ripped all his motorcross posters off the wall. Pulled the covers off the bed and knocked all of his trophies off his dresser.

He threw himself down on the bed and sobbed. "Why didn't I just hide his keys. I knew he wouldn't listen."

All throughout his childhood, Samson didn't really feel different. He thought everyone knew when the phone was about to ring and who would be on the other line.

He'd heard the word psychic and he'd seen commercials for 900 numbers who said they could predict the callers future for a mean $2.95 a minute.

He thought that was funny because that wasn't really how it worked. Oh sometimes, he'd shake the hand of one of his mom's friends and see something weird, but often times it was a feeling. A dread. A worry.

It didn't take long for him to realize that adults don't pay much mind to the worries of children.
Monday, July 28, 2008

New Layout of my Oldest DD




Here's a picture of my oldest daughter when she first got her glasses in April. Doesn't she look so cute. I made the layout with paper from the DCWV summer glitter stack. LOVE LOVE LOVE those papers. The paper doll is cut at 4 1/2 inches. It is sporting the prom girl outfit and prom girl hair. The face stamp is a Peachykeen stamp. I love her stuff. If you've never been to her site you should check it out. The glasses are also a peachykeen stamp. I stamped them in pink and put some stickles on them. The lettering is basecamp and I have no idea where I got the clear letters...just a find from my stash, but I thought they worked out perfectly on this page. Thanks so much for looking.
Thursday, July 24, 2008

What we did for Pappy's birthday



Here is a group photo of us (everyone but me) at a state park. We met half way and had lunch and spent a rainy afternoon at the park yesterday. Our weather has been rather unpredictable lately. Anyway, Pappy seemed surprised and he started trying out his camera right away.

Card for my Father in Law



Tomorrow is my FIL's birthday and my family along with my husband's sister's family chipped in and got him a digital camera. He was still using a wind-it-yourself film camera. I'm not even sure you can buy those anymore. Anyway, here is the card I made him using the DS software. You need to have the Going Places cart to make it. It's hard to tell from the photo but the front of the camera is embossed with the swiss dots cuttlebug file. I will upload a share file tomorrow.

Funky Hand Blog Candy

Bounce on over to http://funkyhand.blogspot.com/2008/07/birthday-blog-candy.html and see all of the cool downloadable papers available and post a comment to be entered to win the generous blog candy! You won't regret that you did, but if you win you have to share with me!
Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Just Write Tuesday #13

Last week was the first time in 14 weeks that I haven't written at least a snippet for Just Write Tuesday. I can't believe I've been doing it that long. Funny how time just flies when you are having fun.

I remember when my daughter, who was six at the time, utter one of the most terrifying phrases I'd ever heard. She said, "Mommy, I want to be a cheerleader." What? A cheerleader? My past experience with cheerleaders hadn't been what I would call enlightening. The cheerleaders I had encountered over my life time always traveled together and pointed out everyone's flawesbut their own. Visions of the movie "Heathers" and the slutty dance done by the evil cheerleader in Bring it on: all or nothing were racing through my head. I tried to find out why my six year wanted to be a cheerleader.

"Really," I said, "You want to cheer? Why's that, honey?"

"Pom poms" she said, "I just love pom poms and jumping and yelling and wearing skirts."

"Don't you want to participate in the sport, instead of just being a spectator? Wouldn't you rather play soccer than cheer for those who do?"

She thought about that for awhile and answered simply, "Nope."

Thus began my foray into the art of cheerleading. Our first coaching experience wasn't great. The three women, all parents of squad members, seemed ill prepared and spent most of their time trying to recruit "real cheerleaders" to teach the little girls.

I found this aggravating and began helping out where I could and soon some of the girls started calling me coach. I have to admit that I liked the sound of that.

After that season ended, my daughter begged me to allow her to continue to cheer. So she began cheering for basketball and then football. By the time the football season rolled around, I was very familiar with the cheers and when approached by the organizational head and asked about possibly coaching, I felt that I probably could handle that.

"As long as it's not too big of a squad," I said.

Shouldn't have uttered that out loud because come football season, I found myself the proud head coach of a squad of 19 7 and 8 year old girls.

It was challenging but in the long run it was fun. I came to respect the sport of cheerleading. It truly is a discipline that requires a great amount of skill.

That same six year old is now already nine and just tried out for a competition squad and come fall I'll probably be coaching again. No not competition. I know my limitation. I'll be coaching my other daughter's basketball squad.
Monday, July 21, 2008

My favorite camping photo and random publishing thoughts


I'm up early and I'm already doing landry at 6:15 a.m. Something is seriously wrong with me. I just couldn't stay in bed....too much stuff to do. You know how it is when you return from camp/vacation.


Plus I haven't done any crafts for a week! I'm having withdrawl. I'm going to make something today and post it, but I must get the laundry done first! ***she says trying not to laugh***


The above picture is my absolute favorite from our camping trip. It's my kids, in their clothes, running into the lake, hand in hand, at sunset! I think I'm going to get it enlarged for my craft room.


My birthday is at the end of the month and I'm thinking about sending a story into a publisher before then. I'm the type of person who must have a deadline or I just procrastinate until I die. I haven't submitted anything in a long while (I'm not good with rejection...words of affirmation are my love language). I mean other than writing for the local paper and for this blog, my words aren't seen by many. More readers than five years ago, but still not as many as I would like.


I'm going to do it. I'm going to take the plunge. After all, I can handle rejection! I'm a mother.
Sunday, July 20, 2008

Pictures of our new toy

Here are the girls in front of the van at our campsite holding the oars.

Here are the girls "rowing" us as their brother supervises. He ain't dumb...it was close to 100 degrees!



My hubby looking cute and annoyed that I'm taking his picture and not rowing.

So what are those faces all about?

As promised here are some of the pictures of our new canoe and our first trip out in it. I may have to scrap these just because I want too. The kids received life vests as a Christmas present from my stepdad and they finally got to use them! Yeah.

Back from Camp

I'm back! Yeah. Five days in the woods may be longer than I'm really comfortable with. I can't wait to shower and wash my hair without wearing shoes! I'll post some pictures later. We just got an 18 foot canoe and we had a lot of fun with that. TTFN
Monday, July 14, 2008

A few more new layouts




Here are a few more layouts that I made about a month ago. I've been lazy in my posting of these. I can't believe that it's already been a month. Where has summer gone? This is one of my son. He is wearing a red swim cap, red underwear and a t-shirt with an iron on that he colored. Over and over he said "I am Batman". So funny?



These pictures are from a pear picking party that we had at my friend Christine's house. Soooo much fun. The kids had a blast and the horses next door were very thankful for the "not so pretty" pears the children brought over for them.

Thanks for visiting!

Close up of the paper dolls...






Here a close up of the two paper dolls I made...I tried to dress them to match their counterpart on my layout. Hope you like.


A few new layouts to share





I only have a few minutes before I run off to work but I thought I would post these new layouts and maybe I'll post a few more after I come home from my meeting. These I made a few weeks ago at a crop with some message board friends. It was so much fun--my face hurt from laughing.

Getting ready for camp...



Well I should be packing for our camping trip but instead I'm typing a blog entry. Can you say procrastination. I haven't been on in a while and I felt I needed to update. Here are two pictures from camp last year. We are going to a local state park. Not too far away since gas prices are terribly high. Also, I will secretly admit this to you ***I don't like tent camping in the rain*** Wow it feels good to get that off my chest! If it storms I'm driving home...and I'm not going to feel guilty about it...not one little bit.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Just Write Tuesday #12

I don't feel much like writing today. I've been staring at this computer screen for longer than I should. Here's my entry for Just Write Tuesday.

"Dandelions in my shoes, in my shoes, in my shoes. Dandelions in my shoes, oh lucky shoes," sang T.J.

"What are you doing," asked Brant, from the front porch of their house.

"Planting flowers in my sneakers," replied T.J., "What does it look like?"

"It looks like a whole lot of trouble to me," said Brant. "Those aren't dandelions, Sherlock, those are the marigolds mom spent all day yesterday planting and I don't think she's going to appreciate your abstract gardening abilities."

T.J. thought about what his brother said for a long time. He looked at his new sneakers overflowing with dirt and flowers and couldn't help but think that his brother was most likely right. Although, T.J. wasn't about to tell Brant that.

"I'm going to grandmas," he said and without bothering to put his shoes on he walked the three blocks to his grandmothers house.

T.J. had always hated shoes and rarely wore them. The dirt and the gravel didn't bother his hardened soles as he skipped along to his grandmother's house.

When he arrived at 215 Marmalade Ave a weird sensation came over him. Where was his grandma? Why was her front door ajar, with the screen flapping in the breeze?

Ever so slowly he walked to the door. "Grandma," he hollered, "Are you here? Grandma?"

"YEOWWWW!"

T.J. jumped at the sight of Inspector Gadget, Grandma's cat. "What has you so spooked?" he asked the cat as he patted his head.

Mustering up all the courage he could, T.J. stepped through the door and hollered for his grandmother a third time. Again, like the time before, there was no answer.

When he got to the kitchen, T.J. had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. The table was overturned and all of the drawers had been emptied. His grandma's lunch was still uneaten on the table, only a bite was missing from her sandwich.

Whoever had visited his grandma's house moments before had been looking for something, but what? And was grandma with them?
Monday, July 7, 2008

A tour of my craft room and my 100th post!

Okay...here's my messy craft room for your viewing pleasure. I was going to clean it up a little bit, but then I realized it always looks like this so you might as well see the true version. Guess I can't yell at my kids about cleaning up their mess anymore...LOL

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Daring Card Makers challenge


I'm not feeling very chilly right now...my craft room seems to be the hottest room in the house. But the challenge at DCM was to make a card that makes you think of cold weather. Here is my take on this fun challenge. The inside reads "some of my best friends are flakes" which is a stampin' up stamp and this cute little snowman on the front is a Peachykeen stamp. I just love Kathy's stuff. You should check it out.

Caardvarks challenge of the week...down on the farm



Here is my take on this week's challenge over at Caardvarks which was to use a barn yard theme. I needed a thank you card and I think this one turned out cute. The inside reads "moo-chas grass-ias", which makes me laugh everytime i say it. TFL

Okie's challege

Fellow blogger Okie issued a challenge on her blog to make a card using a specific .cut file that she offered for sharing. The cut file was a window pane and a flower box. I used the file, but not as it was intended ***hope I'm still qualified***
I made it into a little house with a roof. The stamps I used are from stampin' up. One set is called all in the family and the other is called right at home. I embossed the roof with the cuttlebug and made the steps with a scrap from the window cut out.
The card says "Thanks for your hospitality" and inside it reads "You make me feel right at home" Hope you like it. TFL

Friday, July 4, 2008

Happy 4th of July



Here are some pictures of the fireworks we saw a few days ago. I was trying out my firework setting on my new camera and thought they turned out pretty cool. I didn't have a tripod or anything.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Check one off the list...

Here are my girls sporting their red, white and blue fingernails. They were very excited to have this done. I put on the white dots with my paint pen. Thanks for the idea, Robyn.


A closer view and just to be ubber fair...which is the theme of our summer (what is fair and what is not fair) one hand is my youngest daughter and one is my oldest.


shhhhh...don't tell the oldest. These are just my middlest dd's feet.


Like I said, fairness...that's the motto at our house. And that fairness is not gender exclusive. LOL. I'm sure someday he won't want me to paint them anymore **said with a little frown**

Just Write Tuesday #11

Seeing as most of the day has gotten away from me I decided to post something a little different for Just Write Tuesday. Today is a list of things I would rather be doing than making dinner:

1. Visiting naked island off of Jamaica;

2. Taking a bubble bath without being interrupted by my children and having my legs shave themselves;

3. Painting my kids fingernails red, white and blue (oh, I should definitely do that before bed time)

4. Drinking a margarita;

5. Getting a massage;

6. Watching my housekeeper, let's call him Marco for the purpose of this fantasy, fold all of our laundry;

7. Listening to my husband say, "Don't worry, babe, I got the dishes;

8. Scrapbooking with my sister in Emerald Isle, N.C. (OMG, is that a beautiful place);

9. waving a magic wand and having my couches magically put themselves back together (kids were making a tent);

10. Using that same magic wand to get the bathrooms to clean themselves.

Blog Challenge from my daughters

While in my craft room with my dds one of them came across the wonderful 12x12 pattern paper featured in these cards. ***sigh*** I remember getting this piece of paper in a gift bag at a benefit crop, but that's about all I remember about it.

So the conversation goes something like this:

DD#1 "Mommy, can I have this paper? It's sooooo pretty?"

DD#2 "No you can't have it, it won't be fair if you have it. There is only one piece."

DD#1 "I saw it first"

DD#2 "Na-uh, I saw it first."

Mom, trying to defuse the argument. "Let's make something from it and then we won't have to fight about it."

DD#1 "How many cards can you make with just one sheet of paper?"

Mom, light bulb going off in her head. "I don't know let's find out."


So that is how this challenge came to be. Seeing as I haven't had a comment on my blog for about two weeks, I don't have high hopes that many of you will play along. ***sighs and secretly hopes that Okie and Robyn will link her blog to theirs and send some traffic her way***


As you can see from these not-so-great photos I made twelve cards with one sheet of 12x12 paper and one sheet of black 8 1/2 by 11 paper. The card bases were pre-made and ready to go. A few of the cards have some ribbon on them as well.


I think they turned out rather cute. They were simple and most importantly they ended the argument between my daughters as to who got to have the sheet of paper. The answer....MOMMY.


So my challenge to you....can you make 12 cards from one sheet of 12x12 paper and one sheet of 8 1/2 by 11 paper and if so would you please ***pretty please*** link your cards to my blog so it looks like some one is reading mine. I would much appreciate it.... ***sigh***

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kisatrtle
I'm a 41 year old (gasp) freelance writer, school cafeteria manager, wife and mother. I have three children and one anxious and overweight beagle. I use my blog to make others laugh, to share some cool crafts, to document my lunchlady adventures and to lament about the challenges faced by us all on the journey called life. Thanks for visiting. Please leave some crack...um...I meant some comments.
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