I got Tagged!

By Anita, So here are the rules to play blogtag: List 5 weird things about yourself or your pets. Tag 5 friends and list them. Those people need to write on their blogs about 5 weird things, and state the rules, and tag 5 more people. Don't forget to let the people you tag know by posting a comment on their blog! here are my 5 weird things :: I'm addicted to trashy novels. If it is a Nicole Jordan book or a Linda Howard one, you can likely bet I've read it. I am OCD about my ears. I use Q-tips like ten times a day and clean them out. I am also OCD about dryer lint. If someone does laundry and doesn't pull out the dryer lint I freak out. I get my big toes waxed everytime I get e pedicure. Each of my big toes has a couple hairs and I think they are gross and they drive me bonkers. I collect Barbies. I love them, and that is kinda odd for someone my age lol. 5 people that i'm tagging :: Gina Miller Dani Mogstead Kim Christensen Keely Simpson Shabby Princess

Facelift's & Elmo's

Well I gave my blog a facelift. While I adore Jen Wilson, I was getting a bit tired of staring at her snow fairy kit lol. So here we are newly decorated and with 3 columns! Yay. Anyway Thomas went out yesterday and rode his 1st horse. I wasn't able to make it, but I was told by him all day long how he rode a horse and how cool it was. Well we started yesterday on next months Collab kit at NDISB and I can say you are all in for a huge treat. It is going to be awesome, and so not the typical fall or harvest/seasonal kit that floods the market this time of year. On another note I promised myself weeks ago that when this stupid new elmo came out, that we wern't going to get it. Thomas already has way more toys than he needs and many he doesn't even play with. While he adores Elmo and watches elmo practically daily, I didn't think he needed one since he already had a build-a-bear workshop Elmo. WRONG.... Oh how wrong could I be. He has seen this think on commercials and on the news and on talkshows Etc. He is in love with the thing. He cracks up and starts yelling "Elmo laugh". He wants one bad. So I figure We will cave and buy him one. OMG the thing just came out yesterday and all the shelves are empty around here. Then I read Gina's blog and she says it is the same in her area. So what does a girl do???? She calls her Brother in law who is the Store Manager for Target down in California. He assured me that they are getting a new truckload of Elmo tonight and he will personally grab one for me tonight and put it in the mail to us tommorrow. It's not what you know but who you know. lol. So with that dilema fixed the only thing to ponder now is give it to him when it gets here or hide it in the closet and give it to him from the man in the big red suit at Christmas???

Happy Monday

Well It was an eventful weekend or week I should say. It started out inncently enough with wanting to put down new vinyl flooring in the back bathroom, and rip out the carpet in on of the bedrooms and vinyl it too. As luck would have it both floors had rot in them. So can in the fix-it crew. After much banging, hammering, & cursing, I finally had 2 nice solid floors that the vinyl guy could come do the vinyl. Oh did I mention we were also having concrete poured outside too lol. It was complete choas. As my stinkin luck would have it there was wall damage to the wall with the guys trying to get the floor out. They patched and spankled it and got it all nice and smooth, but it looked aweful of course so now I was stuck repainting both rooms. I was so pooped. Saturday entailed me stacking an entire dumptruck of firewood lol. But yesterday was mine. My 1st day off in what felt like forever. I got my paycheck saturday and looked at my time sheet. OMG I only got one day off in the entire pay period. from the 1st thru the 15th I only took one day off (and it was actually a half day) because I had to go to court as a witness. No wonder I am so beat down and tired. That alone without all the extra work and construction will do it. So anyway Gerald and I headed out yesterday morning bright and early with Thomas. 1st stop was IHOP for breakfast. Now I am officially glad fall is coming. I was able to get pumpkin pancakes...YUMMY! I love them. So then we headed out to Suavie Island to go do the corn maze. We do it every year and it's a blast. We didi the maze and then Thomas rode on the cow train. He was such a cutie. I was a bit sad. I guess we went to early in the season as the hayrides out to the pumpkin patch were not up and running yet. They don't start till next weekend. I told G it was a bit early to buy pumkins anyway. So we bought some produce at the farmers market there and headed back toward Portland. Cars the movie was still playing and we thought we would take Thomas to go see it again. He just loves anything to do with Cars. We went out to McMenamins at the old Kennedy School. I had never been to any of the McMenamins before and it was so cool. They bought an old closed down elementary school and renovated it. It has like 5 restraunts and bars in it. One of them being the courtyard restraunt. It is all outdoors in a beautiful garden. Some of the old classrooms have even been converted to hotel like rooms. You can stay there. Best of all is the theater. The old school auditorium has been converted to a theater. Now this isn't your ordinary theater. It was full of comfy overstuffed couches and coffee tables. You could bring whatever you bought at the restraunts or bars over to the theater and eat there. It was so laid back and family oriented. I loved it. Can't beat the price either $3 for adults and $1 for kids. It cost all three of us $7 to get in the movie. I had serious sticker shock becasue we normally pay $8.75 per person to go to a movie lol. I am so in love with McMenamins. All the walls were painted with art and murals. It really was fantastic. OK so I have a little something special brewing on the backburner. You will all be pleasantly surprised. I've been asked to design for a digital store and I finally conceeded and said YES! I have been putting it off and saying no and making excuses to myself. But it is time to do it. I will shortly be releasing 5 whole kits. Can you believe that. I'll be sharing previews as I finish them up here. I'm even going to let you guys name them lol. OK the ladies at NDISB have really outdone theirselves this month. Look at this fantastic kit. Play All Day is Septembers Customer appreciation kit. Newsletter subscribers can get it free with any $3 purchase at NDISB. So make sure you sign up for the monthly newsletter.

The Uber long catch up post

I promised a real post soon so here it is. This is going to be long. We had a blast at the Nascar races. I missed the heck out of Thomas. I always do, but it is also very nice to get away without the kiddo too. Our anuual family reunion Camping trip went great. Gerald and I got to meet Aaron's new gir. She was very preggo on the camping trip. She actually had the baby just they other day. A little girl 7 1/2 pounds and 19 1/2 inches. Hmmnnn last I blogged we were just ordering a new car. Well if you can believe it, It finally got delivered, with 3 miles. I way a little PO'ed cuz I wanted to take a picture of the speedometer reading "zero" I said how does a new car get 3 miles on it. I guess from loading and unloading it on and off of rail cars, freight trucks etc. It also has a scratch on the door...more like a gouge, becasue a scratch can buff out. My brand new car is going to the body shop on Monday to get fixed. Can you believe that. Delivered with scratches. Gerald said had it been a regular customer and not a Dodge employee they would never had known about it, because the body shop would have had it fixed, before the customer was even called to pick up their car, but being as Gerald works there and he is the one that oversees all the new cars coming in and coordinates the deliveries, kinda hard to keep him away from his new car. Specially when we were told 6-8 weeks when we ordered it. Got a 2007 Dodge Caliber, and it came in and all was finalized yesterday Kit is Teresa Hernandez Endless summer kit. All the stuff is stuff I scanner in like the window sticker and my keys and stock tag etc. Check out the arrow. It says "this car built specially for Monica McLain" that rocks! OK NDISB is having a HUGE sale from Sunday the 3rd thru Monday the 4th. It is Judys Labor day sale ( Celebrating Theresa's Birthday) Happy Birthday Theresa! and everything is a whopping 43% off! Also with any $15 purchase you also get to stick this little beauty in your shopping bag and use the code NDISBLaborday2006 to get it FREE! And here are some LO's from the camping trip. All are using the fab new kit from NDISB called "Campfire Stories" and is currently the customer appreciation kit and is FREE with any purchase. So what are you waiting for. Run & Go get it!. Journaling reads: "Thomas found his way to the keg. I wonder where he learned about drinking out of the hose from! Monkey see monkey do...right! All Thomas said was “I drinkDaddy’s beer juice.” Alpha by Dani MogsteadJournaling reads: "It’s no wonder Steve calls Steph and I Havoc and Fury “The Chaos Twins”! We always Seem to find some sort of prank or make a little trouble every single time we get together. This time It was sneaking off the the bathroom and getting toilet paper from the park bathrooms. Then while the guys were all out playing frisbee golf we TP’ed Daves tent. Then later in the trip Steve booby trapped Dave’s tent with water ballons and zip ties! Poor Dave!" This last layout feauture's templates by Keely Simpson. She is one of the benefctors of the Guardian Peas kit that I helped design for a few months back. Her 2 year old son Shane has cancer, and they will be basically living in the hospital for the next several months. Now you all know that after the Baby Allie deal I am very pro-active with children's cancer. It breaks my heart everytime I hear of someone with a sick child. So Keely has decided to take a pro-active stance and is selling her templates HERE at NDISB.com. She is also heading up another major kit (well 3 actually), all of which will help offset the cost of Shane's medical care. I am proud to say I will also be a part of this. Keely if your reading this I love you girl and you are one of the strongest women I know! Chin up and prayers are with you. I also urge you all to go to my Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Light the Night website and give. Every dollar helps in such a big way. YOU CAN DONATE HERE It really is a worthy cause, and it makes you feel good too. I promise in the next several days to update more!